From 'Weird Looking' to 'Gorgeous Man is Gorgeous'
by thelastclarissa
Summary: Pretty AU until the last few chapters, and then a bit less AU. Darcy is a confident, dancey, Tumblr-loving person and also Jane's secretary type person, and Loki is a supersmart doctor who has a hard time talking to girls and is chivalrous and cute. They bond over geekiness. Loki isn't really very dark. Mostly fluff. Follows Darcy and Loki over about two years.
1. Chapter 1

Darcy Lewis sang along to the radio as she sat in traffic. Ugh. She was so gonna be late for work. Good thing her boss, Jane, was a complete wuss and wouldn't really give her any shit about it. _I should really be nicer to Jane_, she thought, and then forgot about it.

"Hey I just met you and this is crazy," Darcy sang, "but here's my number so call me maybe. God song, why you be so catchy!" She ran a hand through her mostly dry hair and watched the drivers in the cars next to her. There must have been an accident or something, because this crawling traffic was highly irregular. Tired of the song, she switched the radio off.

She sipped her latte slurpily. "Mmm-mmm-mmm. Yummy in my tummy." She did a little happy-yummy-latte-dance in her seat. The driver next to her caught her eye and made a judgy face. "Bitch," Darcy sang to herself, "bitch don't hate, no don't go hatin'. If you hatin' then you stupid. If you stupid then you broke. If you broke then you homeless. Bitch you homeless." Yeesh. People were so boring sometimes. Personally, Darcy thought it was weird if people _didn't _do little dances for things that made them happy. Like, what the fuck kind of life were you living then? A life without joy.

Out of the blue a siren started wailing close by. "Fuck me," Darcy swore as she jumped, spilling coffee all over her shirt and hands. "Son of a bitch." She joined everyone in pulling as much to the side as possible to let the cop through, creating a weird-looking aisle in the middle of the two lane highway."Here comes the-" Darcy sang as she craned her neck to check the gender of the cop driving the car- "- groom, all dressed in blue. Something something something, and they all lived happily ever after. There house was full of laughter, their house was full of kids. There house was mortgaged to the hilt and they got divorced and then were dead."

Finally the traffic started moving again. It turned out that some motorcycle had been hit by a car and the car had skidded into a really bad position for traffic to go by. As she passed, she checked on her 'groom', who was talking to this tall guy with a weird face and long black hair. Ugh, she thought. Long hair. Bah. But how funny would that be if it turned out they were both gay and this was how they met and if they actually _did_ end up getting married.

_I ship it_, she thought passionately, and then laughed and shook her head at herself. She was shipping everything these days. "Oh Tumblr," she said to herself fondly, thinking over her OTPs. "The things you make me ship." It had gotten to the point where she would see a pencil with no eraser and then one of those big pink erasers and want to cry at how sad it was- the perfectness of the two of them! The poor little things. Forever alone. Ahaha. Whatever though. It made her happy to ship things.

* * *

"Yo yo my boss woman," Darcy called as she walked into the lab. She set down her bag at her desk and took off her scarf. "How goes it?"

Jane looked up from her notes, her pencil tapping the table absent-mindedly. _Tap_._ Tap_. _Tap_. The sound was a major pet peeve of Darcy's for some reason. She tried to wear headphones as much as possible when Jane was in one of her Super-smart Science Woman Brainpower Note-taking Moods.

"Hmmm? Oh hello. Your hair is lovely, Darcy," Jane said in her soft little polite voice. She looked beautiful, as usual. Sadly. Just once, just once- couldn't she just have a bad hair day or something? It was so unfair!

"Thanks, Jane. I like your..." Ugh. Everything. "...necklace."

"Why, thank you Darcy. That's quite sweet of you." Jane's attention drifted back to her paper. She chewed her lip thoughtfully.

It was really unfair of Darcy to be so harsh on Jane. She knew it, but...it was just so easy. Jane was so intimidatingly smart and beautiful with her science knowledge and her big brown eyes and her frickin' sex-bomb hair. And she was all politeness and feminine and sweet, and yet almost like...helpless or something. Which was really annoying. Whatever though. Darcy didn't really like to get in-depth on her reasons for things. It just got confusing.

"Oh," Jane said, looking up from her notes again. "You know how Dr. Laufeyson was supposed to come over for the tour today?"

"Yeah, yeah. Mr. Brainman." Dr. Laufeyson was apparently some kind of super genius or something. Jane had been dying to talk to him about her own study of the possibility of other dimensions, but he lived in Boston, which was a bit far to hop on over for a lunch meeting in New Mexico. Now that it was summer though and his spring term (he was a professor, too) was over, he had flown down to New Mexico for a few months to work with Jane. This was supposed to be their first day together.

"Well apparently he got in some kind of accident so that's postponed 'til tomorrow."

"What? Wow. You're really calm about this. Isn't he like the man you want to marry and he just almost died?" Darcy stretched at her desk. Arms up, wave them to the side, roll the neck, yup yup. It was really funny to hear Jane talk about Brainyboy. She would get really animated and wave her arms a lot and use words like 'phenomenal', 'mind-blowing', and 'sexy man-body'. Well, technically that last one was subtext, but whatever.

"Darcy!" Jane blushed slightly. "Stop that. I never said any such thing! And anyways, it was a minor accident. He's fine really, there's just a lot of paperwork and he thought it would be better to start off tomorrow instead."

"*Cough* Lazy genius boy. *cough*"

Jane shook her head and went back to her notes. Darcy sat down at the desk and turned the laptop on. She spent the rest of the day entering in the data and notes Jane had set aside for her. Ugh. It was tedious. But the pay was decent at least, and while she wasn't crazy about Jane she didn't actively dislike her, which was more than could be said for most people she met. So she stayed.


	2. Chapter 2

Loki Laufeyson groaned to himself as he lay on his bed. Of course. He was supposed to be meeting Dr. Jane Foster this morning, but of course with his bad luck he got in an accident instead as he was heading in toward the lab. It wasn't really his fault at all, either, which made it even more typical. Somehow bad luck just followed him. It was extremely annoying. He'd been driving his rented Harley and must have been in someone's blind-spot as they were coming onto the highway because they hit him almost immediately after merging. Thankfully they hadn't been up to speed, and he was lucky enough to only get a dislocated shoulder and some bruises.

He was so embarrassed though, and he didn't really know why. But he was. Too embarrassed to come in as planned- so he'd made some bullshit up about there being a lot of paperwork. He would just sleep it off and in the morning he would feel like less of an ass. Though how that made sense...he did not know.

"For someone with my IQ I am so stupid sometimes," he said to himself as he stared upwards. "Why am I even here?" he asked the ceiling.

It was true that he was looking forward to meeting Dr. Foster- she had made some fascinating discoveries- but they could have just e-mailed back and forth. In truth, he was just...bored. There. That was it. He was so. Fucking. Bored. He'd graduated MIT when he was eighteen and had then won awards and scholarships and all sorts of things that a young man who had a passion for science had just eaten up. He'd been offered his first job as a professor when he was twenty-one, and he'd been doing it for six years. He liked teaching, weirdly enough since he was in fact quite shy and reserved. But it was the same, over and over again. Same kinds of people. Same kinds of situations. He felt like he was stuck in Groundhog Day. So he'd decided to take Dr. Foster up on her invitation to spend a few months in New Mexico studying with her. A change of scene had sounded perfect.

Now he lay on the bed and threw his hand over his eyes. "This is ridiculous," he said to himself. "I am not going to just stay in my room all day." Although it was tempting. Ugh. No! He was going to go explore this desert place with it's weird sand and it's dry weather. He was going to explore the shit out of this place.

He rose, filled with new determination, grabbed his sunglasses, and headed out.

* * *

New Mexico was so different from Boston. The people, too. Everything was much slower and more relaxed here.

He wandered a few blocks around his lodgings, The Ironic Sailor (a quirky nautical-themed B&B), going into a few of the shops here and there. During his walk though he had a new idea about the theory of hypothetical other dimensions, and he spent the next few hours in a coffee shop, writing notes in the little notebook he carried everywhere for these reasons.

Later that night he would remember that at one point his attention had been drawn by a woman in her early twenties as she sang quietly to herself while walking past him to get to a table. He had thought she was talking to him because she had said, "Hey I don't know you- and this is crazy, but here's my number. So call me maybe." And he'd been so surprised that someone would say that to him, let alone a pretty girl like that one, that he'd just been speechless. Which turned out to be a good thing because she hadn't been talking to him and he would have made a fool of himself by answering.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Darcy sat at her desk typing in data, bored out of her mind, and wondering if Jane would even notice if she went on Tumblr for a few minutes. When Jane was in a note-making mood it was safe, but she was in one of those Busy Scientist Woman Has to Travel From One Desk To Another Carrying Strange Equipment and Making Incomprehensible-sounding Sentences, so it was riskier.

A knock sounded on the door. Jane looked up from her...whatever she was doing, and got all excited.

"Little pig, little pig, come on in," Darcy called.

The door opened and in came a tall man with shoulder length black hair and a weird- _wait a minute_, Darcy thought.

"Oh my God!" she cried in astonishment. "You're that guy!" How weird. She'd never met half of a couple she'd shipped before.

He paused, looking very confused, and Jane looked at her disapprovingly as she walked over to him and stuck her hand out. "Ignore her. That's just Darcy," Jane said, shaking his hand. "I'm Dr. Jane Foster. We've...sort-of...met." She laughed charmingly.

The man smiled at her. _Oh my god_, Darcy thought. _ His face. It just looks so weird._

"So we have," he said. "I'm Dr. Laufeyson. But, if you'd just call me Loki...that'd be great. Because it's my...name," he finished slightly awkwardly. Jane just smiled at him all pleased-like.

"Loki it is then."

_Wow guys, _Darcy thought. _Just get a room already. The sexual tension in here is stifling._

Jane led him off to show him the lab, and as he followed he sort of nodded at Darcy in greeting. Darcy smiled back. One of those smiles when you're all like 'Yeah, okay. I'm socially expected to do this but it's not genuine' . She was not a fan of him. She knew it was really judgmental and all, but...the guy was wearing, like, a tux or something. He was totally suited up. It was weird. They were in a lab! He was probably one of those guys who only watch international films and documentaries, or who get history books and read them just for fun. It wasn't natural.

* * *

How strange that the girl from the coffee shop turned out to be Dr. Foster's assistant. _What were the odds?_ he wondered. Technically he could actually roughly calculate them, and his brain even began to do so before he reigned it in and stopped it. Really. His brain needed to understand when he was asking things rhetorically.

Dr. Foster- "No, please- just Jane."- showed his around the lab. He was quite impressed. Jane had a pretty good set-up here, and she was easy to talk to, which was nice. It was hard for him to find common ground with people who weren't in the science world, but he could more than hold his own within it.

He soon got settled in discussing theories with Jane, but he kept finding himself staring over at the girl. Darcy. What an interesting name. And she was listening to an iPod and mouthing the words as she typed on the computer. Frequently she stopped typing so she could wiggle her shoulders and move her hands around in the air in some kind of bizarre-looking seated dance. He wasn't used to people being so unselfconsciously...unselfconscious (_Yeah, thanks brain for that stunning vocabulary work_, he thought with amusement). _What on earth must be going on in her brain_, he wondered as she started making these weird puppy sounding whines while looking at the screen.

* * *

Okay, so she wasn't going to win Employee With The Biggest Work Ethic anytime soon. So take her out into a dark alley and mug and murder her...she'd gone on Tumblr. And as soon as she had, her dashboard had been filled up with images of Benedict Cumberbatch. Ugh. Talk about life-ruiners, with his fancy old lips and his goddamn cheekbones. And his eyes! "Are you kidding me right now!" she cried (quietly though, because Jane and Brainyboy were like twenty feet away). Were they blue or were they green? The man was just flawless.

Brainman kept looking at her though, and she didn't want to get in trouble with Jane, so she reluctantly signed out of Tumblr and went back to her actual work that she was paid to do. Stupid intruder person. She could've stayed on longer if he wasn't being all attention-attracty. "God, dude," she mumbled to herself. "It's called subtlety. Look it up with that huge brain of yours." Although, it then occurred to her to wonder why he was even looking over at her in the first place. She was pretty sure she looked fine. She never wore much make-up anyway, so it probably wasn't smudged. There was nothing in her teeth, because she hadn't eaten yet. The man was just being weird. With his weird face. Seriously, how did his face even work? He wasn't bad-looking or anything, his face was just all- confusing. And the long-ish hair...meh. Long hair rarely worked on guys. Whatever.

"Oh my god!" she whispered excitedly as the next song came on her iPod. "Laundry day. See you there. Underthings. Tumbling..."

* * *

The end of the day came around as usual. Five o'clock. Bingo. Time for home and movies. Darcy gathered her bag and called out to Jane, who was still- still! After hours and hours of talking!- deep in discussion with BrainyMcBrains.

"Yo! Jane! It's five. I'm off."

Jane looked in surprise at the clock. "Oh my god," she said. "Okay, yeah. Well, thank you, Darcy. Have a good night."

Brainman stood up. "Sorry- I should probably go to. I have an engagement this evening." _Pshhh, _thought Darcy. '_Engagement'. Who even says that? 'Oh darling, yes I'm sorry but I must be off. I'm supposed to become engaged to someone this evening'._ She laughed to herself quietly.

"I'll be back in tomorrow morning though, if that's okay. I'd like to test a few of those theories." He said.

"Of course! I look forward to it!" Jane gushed.

_Oh my god Jane, you sound like desperation incarnate_, Darcy thought. _Keep it in your pants._

Darcy walked out, only to realize a minute later that he had left just after her and now they were in that awkward situation where two people who are slight acquaintances have to walk the same long halls together and decide if they should try to make conversation or not, but either way it would be awkward. Ugh. Dude. Seriously.

She took the plunge. "So," she said, pausing for him to catch up with her. "Science, yeah? Go team."

He looked at her and smiled crookedly. Like legit _crookedly_. _Dude, WHY ARE YOU SMILING WITH ONLY HALF YOUR MOUTH IT LOOKS REALLY BIZARRE AND ALMOST attractive in a strange way, _she thought to herself.

"Indeed," he said. "Go team."

"Wait wait wait. Hold up." _This is completely unfair. You should not have a voice that sounds like this, strange-looking man. You should not have a delicious sex voice of sex so WHAT IS GOING ON._

He stopped walking.

"Oh whoops," Darcy laughed. "Not literally. I just meant- how do you have a British accent! I thought you were raised in Boston."

They were almost to the exit now. _Thank goodness_, Darcy thought. _I need to stop by the local store of the gods and get me some ice cream._

"Right, well, I was born in England. London, actually. And I lived there Until I was fifteen. So I've still got a lot of the accent."

"Gotcha," Darcy said, not liking the way his voice was being so attractive and beautiful. _Fuck me,_ she thought. _Good thing his face is so confusing, or I'd be in trouble._

He reached the door ahead of her and held it for her.

"Awww," she said. "Thank you. Chivalry and all that. Good old England."

He did that smile thing again, and damn him if he didn't look just a bit adorable. _Still. Good thing his hair is long, or I might have difficulties._

"Well, you're quite welcome, m'lady. I suppose this is where we part then."

"Yeps." Darcy looked up at the sky. It was dark and menacing. "Oh god. Is it actually going to rain?" What a weird concept. Rain. Water falling from the sky. No, thank you very much. Water should stay on the ground where you could avoid it if you wanted.

Unfair Sexvoice looked up too. "It's likely."

"Ugh."

He slanted her a curious look, but she wanted her ice cream, so she just said goodbye and headed off to her beat-up gray Volvo.

* * *

Loki watched her drive off. She was the most amusing person he had met in...sheesh. A long time. Shaking his head at himself, he walked over to his newly rented Harley. Checking to make sure the parking lot was empty (he really had meant to change inside, but he'd gotten distracted by the girl and he didn't want to go all the way back in now), he took his suit-jacket and button-up shirt off and changed into a T-shirt and put on his leather jacket. It was so much more comfortable to ride them than in a suit. His arms had more mobility. Sadly he was still wearing his suit-pants, so he probably looked pretty ridiculous: suit-pants, t-shirt, leather jacket. Whatever though. So he would never be a fashion icon.

He put his helmet on and drove off.


	4. Chapter 4

Oh god the flavors. So many to choose from. Darcy stood frozen with indecision in the ice cream isle at the supermarket near her house. Did she want Mint or did she want Coffee? She groaned. "Sweet sweet ice cream," she murmured to herself. "Why do you do this to me? Why give me so many choices of deliciousness and then make me pick only one?" She stroked the glass of the freezers. "You naughty little wonderful devil, you."

"Darcy?"

"Oh my dear sweet lord!" Darcy shrieked in surprise, spinning around.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to startle you. That's actually not the first time I've called your name, though, so I just thought...you know, I'd go louder."

It was Brainysexman, of course. Had he actually just said 'that's not the first time I've called your name'? _Ugh, brain. Stop putting everything in a dirty context_, Darcy told herself with annoyance. _Just because his voice is stupid and incredible does not mean you should sex him._ But focusing on a more important issue- he was standing behind her at the grocery store not even half an hour after she'd left him in the parking lot. What the fuck?

"Dude, what are you doing here?" Darcy asked, slightly suspiciously. "I mean- hi."

Sexypossiblestalkerman laughed a little bit- and what was his tongue even doing! WHAT WAS GOING ON because his laugh was doing weird things to her stomach, and she was pretty sure it wasn't all just ice cream hunger.

"Yeah, sorry," he said. "I know. This is a bit weird, right?"

_Ummm, yes, just a little bit, _Darcy thought. "This is _SO _weird," she said, waving her arms around to indicate the huge weirdness of this.

He rubbed the back of his neck kind of endearingly. "Well I've got this thing later tonight, and I wanted to get a snack. And then here you are, in the frozen section and I thought it might be weirder if I didn't say anything. You attention seemed pretty consumed by-"

"Shyeah," Darcy interjected, relieved and a bit unwillingly charmed by him. "Consumed by lust."

He blinked at her uncertainly. They just stared at each other for a moment.

"What?" he asked. His voice cracked slightly.

Darcy laughed, shaking her head. "Sorry! Sorry, yeah, I meant by ice cream. You know- consumed by lust...for ice cream." He didn't say anything, so she felt like she had to keep explaining. "Not like, for sex or anything. That would be silly!"

"Silly," he echoed, this funny look on his face.

"Yeah, silly. Because I could like, get that wherever I...wanted...to get...sex at. Sexytimes. All that sex I could get. So much sex."

He was just looking at her now with his eyes all surprised and his eyebrows- he did have nice eyebrows, she would admit that much- all tilted up in this funny little quirk, and it kind of sunk in what she'd just said. She had a habit of babbling, and sometimes her mouth was far more ahead of her brain. Why was she talking about sex though! What had happened!

"I'm sorry," she said, laughing at herself a bit. "Wow. We both seem to just be really sorry tonight. Anyways, I _am_ sorry- my mouth sometimes doesn't tell my brain what it's going to do, so we're both surprised, really, by me talking so much about sex when what I really want is ice cream."

He smiled that little crooked smile thing he had going on, and said, "Don't worry about it. I'll just leave you to your ice cream then. It was..." he quirked his eyebrows, "nice to see you so unexpectedly." And he turned to go.

Darcy was going to just let him leave, but when she turned back to the ice cream she remembered her dilemma.

"Oh wait! Hold on just a minute. Can you help me?" she asked.

He turned around. "Umm, okay...?" He walked back.

"See, because here's the thing- I don't know whether I should get Mint or Coffee. Which one should I get? I'm, like, extremely terrible at making choices. I know I'll regret it. I just know it."

He smiled and laughed a little. _Ugh, _she thought, _what the fuck, man. Why do you get to laugh like that! It's completely unfair. And you, like, bite your tongue or something when you laugh and it just looks all yummy and this is not a thing that is good! This is not a thing of goodness!_

"Wait- can you not just get both?" he asked, confused.

Darcy gave him a look. "Are you kidding me?"

"Umm, no. Why? Is that bad?"

"Dude. This is Breyers we're talking about. It's like five dollars for one. You want me to spend ten dollars on ice cream?"

"Oh. I guess not. Okay then...Mint?" he suggested. Poor guy, he was pretty out of his element here. She wondered what his 'engagement' even was. It was really hard to imagine him on a date. What would he even talk about with someone? Science? But that was harsh of her, she knew. He probably had...lots of other interests, whatever they were.

"Mmm," she made a noise of painful deliberation. "Mmm." Oh god. But what if what she really wanted was Coffee? _FML,_ she thought. _Decisions are stupid_.

Confusinglysexy started chuckling.

"What?" she asked. "I might want Coffee. This is hard!" _I wonder what else is hard_, she thought. _Oh my god brain! Calm down!_

"No, it's just...the sound you made," he shook is head. "It sounded kind of like a puppy whining. In a good way!" he added, realizing how what he said could be interpreted.

"Oh," Darcy said, laughing. "Yeah...I do that sometimes. It's a thing. And Christ- is it just me or did it get really cold?" She was just wearing a t-shirt and she must have been standing in the frozen section for fifteen minutes by now. She rubbed her goose-bump covered arms. "Brr. Okay, decision time has to come quick."

She didn't really realize what he was doing as he took off his leather jacket until he was offering it to her.

"Awww, thank you," she said, putting it on. That was so nice of him! Kind of overboard seeing as all she had to do was open the freezer and pick a flavor, but nice nonetheless. Ahaha, it was so big on her. He really was pretty tall, and his chest was more built than she had remembered. Hmm. But- WHAT ON EARTH.

She tilted her head to the side and asked him very suspiciously, "Okay. Okay. So I know there has to be some perfectly reasonable explanation, but..._why do you have a TARDIS on your shirt are you kidding me?_"

He looked down in surprise at his chest and then smiled. "Huh. That's funny- I forgot I was wearing this," he said.

"Wait, but you actually _know_ what it is, yeah? _Please_ tell me you know what it is."Darcy was a major Doctor Who fan.

"What, the TARDIS? Time And Relative Dimension In Space? Yeah, I love the show. Doctor Who. Why, do you know it? It's actually what made me want to be a scientist when I was growing up. Of course, they've rebooted the series recently, so now there's all these new episodes and stuff, and..umm...well, yeah. Anyways, I like it."

Darcy stared at him in shock. She wrapped her leather-jacked-covered arms around herself and pretended he was hugging her. This was terrible news. Why did he just look like five times more handsome now! His face wasn't even...'weird' anymore, it was just, like, the only face he would make sense with. His green eyes were really expressive and his eyebrows were always making statements and quirking up or slanting down, and his nose fit his face just right, and his cheekbones were quite...mmm...well, quite a bit better than they had any right being, and his lips were just ugh because it was not okay for him to have those amazing lips and the way he held his tongue with his teeth when he laughed- like, what the hell man. Not okay. Even his hair! Well, not that it looked _good_, necessarily, but it wasn't awful anymore, either.

"Know it? Are you kidding me? It's like, my favorite show ever. BBC is finally airing season six in the States tonight at seven, and that's the whole reason I even stopped in here to get ice-cream."

"Oh my god!" Surprisinglyhandsome man exclaimed, getting really exited. "I'm watching it too! That's the thing that I was doing later tonight. I just came in here to get a snack, too."

"_That's_ your 'engagement'? Oh my god! Oh my god oh my god oh my god!" It was so exciting to meet other fans of the show. It was seriously under-appreciated in America!

When Darcy liked people, she started getting a bit possessive of them, and she wanted nice things to happen to them and for them to never get hurt or sad. It was a small group, because for one reason or another, she just found most people boring or annoying in some way. Mostly the group consisted of her mom and dad- well, she was adopted, but they were the only parents she'd ever known- and a few friends back home in Virginia. Possibly Jane, to a lesser degree. With this new revelation though, she felt like he was one of hers now.

"Okay, dude, here's the deal," she said, grabbing his hand. "Which snack did you want?"

He seemed a bit taken aback by her holding his hand and leading him off out of the frozen section, but he went with it. "Oh, but what about your ice-cream?"

"No! Who can think of ice-cream at a time like this? What snack did you want?"

"Okay. Well, carrots and hummus."

Darcy gasped. "Oh god that sounds soooo good. Right. Off we go. Vegetables are over here." She led him over to the the carrots. "I'm assuming you want baby carrots, yeah?"

"Yeah," he said, bemused.

"Of course. Because only crazy people like the regular ones with their disgusting bitterness. Okay, and hummus stuff is over here- you want plain, right? Other ones are gross." She stuck her tongue out to indicate how gross other ones were, just in case he had other ideas.

He chuckled. "Yeah. Just plain. I like plain and simple."

"Awww, that's nice. I like that. Plain and simple," she smiled at her feet. "Right. Okay, so we've got the food, now- and hear me out!- I know this sounds a bit mad," she laughed. "'Mad'. Nothing like a bit of English slang, eh?" she said, nudging his ribs with her elbow. _Oh my lord, _she thought,_ his chest is sooooo firm. Fuck me._

He looked down at her in amusement. It was funny, how she was just becoming aware of their height difference. He was like a foot taller than her! Not really, but probably like six inches or something. It was...not altogether a bad feeling, walking next to a, somewhat newly, handsome man, holding his hand (which was a bit calloused, for some reason, and very surprisingly strong feeling) and leading him off to the register.

"Anyways, since we're both watching the same show, and you're staying at, what, a hotel or something?"

"A B&B, actually."

"Whatever, my apartment is way comfier. I have blankets. And my couch pulls out to have footrests. It's really great. But anyways, everyone knows it's way funner to watch things with other people who love them, so what I'm saying is-" she looked up at him. "Ugh. Just come over to my house and watch it with me. Also because I want some of your food."

He did that crooked smile thing again. _Fuck me he is dangerously gorgeous,_ she thought. _But that will not be a problem, because...of...I just won't let it be, because I need this to happen!_

"Wait, really? Are you serious?" He asked. Oh my god why were his eyebrows doing that really cute quirking thing. God damn it.

"Dude," she said. "I am the most serious serious-person ever right now. It'll be sooo fun! And don't worry, it won't be awkward at all. I know we basically just met earlier today, but I promise I'm not a murderer-person or some kind of weirdo, plus you're a man, so technically I should be more afraid of _you_ than you should be afraid of me..." she paused, wondering how she even got to this point.

He looked a bit confused too, yet still amused, which- frankly- was pretty incredible. She was honestly just amazed that he seemed to have such patience with her. Most people did not. Hence another reason to dislike most people.

"Okay," he said. His lips were annoying her so much. They shouldn't curve that way. How did he work? It was the most perfect slant that lips had ever slanted to.

"What?" she had lost her train of thought.

"I'll...come over if that's okay. To watch. Yeah?" They were at the check-out now.

"Oh yay!" Darcy smiled up at him, pleased. "That's great, because I really want those carrots now."

* * *

Out in the parking-lot, she gave him directions to her apartment, just in case he got cut off as he was following her.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know what to call you. I've...erm, yeah. I've forgotten your name." She was kind of actually embarrassed about that now, seeing as how she felt like she knew him so much more. Whoops.

He smiled and almost seemed to blush slightly. "It's Loki. Loki Laufeyson."

"Loki. Cool name. And I'm Darcy, by the way," she said, just in case he hadn't remembered either.

"Right," he said. "Darcy."

"Okay! So off we go, yeah?" She opened her car door and he turned to leave. "Oh, wait! Just one more thing."

He turned back.

"Just to be clear, you know? That this isn't, like, a date or anything. Just people watching a show together with food. Because I don't really do that dating stuff."

He smiled at that and raised his eyebrows comically. "How do you get all that sex that you were talking about then?"

Darcy laughed. "Oh, jeez. I forgot about that. Umm...let's change the topic really obviously, or better yet, I'll actually get in my car and leave," she said, giving him back his jacket. "Thanks for this, by the way."

"No problem," he said, chuckling, and headed off to his vehicle as she got in her car.


	5. Chapter 5

_How on earth did this happen?_ Loki wondered as he followed Darcy back to her house. _What am I doing! This is crazy!_ It was doomed to end in disaster. He would say something insensitive, or he would be too strange, and she'd ask him to leave. He just knew it. His track record with women was pretty crash-and-burn. Although, Darcy...she was different. She wasn't anything like the girls he'd gone out with before. But what was he even thinking! He should not be thinking about Darcy in the same context as women he'd gone out with. They were just going to watch TV together- she'd said it herself, that this wasn't a date.

_Oh God_, he thought,_ just let me not ruin this_. _Please._

He really liked her. He sighed. Ugh. He _really_ liked her. She was so funny, and attractive- good god was she attra- Good _god!_ He'd very nearly missed the turn, and then where on earth would he have ended up. Trying to stop thinking and focus on driving, he went through the list of periodic elements, stating their names, abbreviations, and properties. It was his own personal mental stress-ball.

* * *

Darcy's car pulled up in front of a smallish two-story white-stucco building and Loki parked his bike behind her. Taking his helmet off he dismounted and ran a hand through his hair. Yeesh. It was getting pretty long now. He supposed he should get it cut, but hated going to barbershops. You asked for a slight trim and ended up being left scalped.

Darcy got out of her car and stopped when she stood in front of him. She stared up at him and then at his bike. Oh god, she was so beautiful. Her hair was all falling out of her ponytail and her eyes were so big and blue and nice and- oh god. Had she asked a question?

"What?" he asked, hoping he didn't sound like too much of an idiot.

"Do you have a death wish?" she asked, her eyes looking very serious.

Urgh! He knew it! He'd known he would fuck it up and he already had. He was so mad at himself. Jesus Christ! He was completely pathetic! He was about to just apologize and leave when she elaborated.

"Because, a motorcycle? Seriously?" she gesticulated animatedly as she spoke. "Dude, you know those are total death-traps, yeah? They're so unsafe."

_Good god, woman_, he thought to himself with fond irritation. She certainly seemed to love being dramatic. He was so relieved, though. _This is ridiculous_, he told himself as he was mesmerized once more by her face. _She isn't into you, _he told himself. _Stop thinking like that. Not gonna happen._

"They're actually really quite safe-" he tried to explain, feeling like he should attempt to defend himself, but she cut him off.

"Deathtrap! Like if death was a mouse and and you were trying to trap it, so instead of cheese you put out a motorcycle to lure people to their deaths- a _death-trap_. And you, my friend," she poked his chest. "are lucky to still be alive after driving that thing." She frowned. "Plus weren't you in an accident, like, yesterday?"

"Well, technically, but it was pretty minor-" She raised her eyebrows skeptically. "I just like to feel the wind," he finished, feeling kind of lame. It was true though, it felt like flying when you were on the highway with the wind blowing in your face.

"Yeah, yeah. So stand in front of a fan or something. How are you gonna feel the wind when you're dead?" She pursed her lips. "Whatever. Don't let me tell you how to live your life." Turning to lead him inside he thought he heard her mumble, "Or die your death...motorcycles...stupid...injuries...cheekbones...ugh."

Not really sure what to make of that, Loki decided to just let it slide, and he followed her into the first floor apartment.

Throwing the door open, Darcy announced, "Welcome to my home, sir. Do take off your coat and stay a while. I'm gonna make tea. You want some?" she shook her head as she went through the living room and into the kitchen as he followed behind her. "What am I saying? You're British. Of course you want tea."

He smiled at that. "I'm not sure," he said, "but I think that might be racist." _Jesus Loki_, he winced to himself. Wow. What a way to be uncontroversial and cool. Yeah, call the girl you like racist. Idiot.

Darcy just laughed as she put the kettle on though. "You know, I think it might have been." She grinned at him. "Perhaps I'm a closet racist," she joked, putting on some strange voice that he assumed was supposed to be a British accent. "You've outed me, guvnor. I suppose the old pot oughtn't call the kettle black and...bah, I'm done. It's starting to be just a liiiiittle too forced."

Loki just looked at her, grinning. "What are you doing?" he asked, amused.

Darcy waved a teabag around. "Trying to be ridiculous! What do you think? Success?"

_I am in deep shit_, Loki thought to himself as he stared at her waving her teabag around with her nose being all cute and just...there...sitting on her face so perfectly, and she was just smiling the most adorable smile that made her look all rabbity and sweet, which was actually pretty funny considering how she had wanted carrots, and-

"I would call it a grand success," he assured her, pulling out a chair at the table.

"Well, good," she said, sounding satisfied. She took two mugs out from a cabinet and put a teabag in one. "What kind do you want?" she asked. "I've got Wildberry Zinger, Earl Grey, and Mint."

"Earl Grey, please." He was a black-tea drinker, no question. Black-tea, a drop of milk, and no sugar. The only way to fully enjoy a cup of tea.

She made a face that scrunched her nose up. "Ooookay then. If you're sure."

"What, you don't like Earl Grey?"

"Ick. No. That stuff is gross."

He furrowed his brows. "Then why did you even buy it?"

"I was trying to be healthy!" she exclaimed, snapping her finger at him for some reason. "Don't judge me! Black-tea is supposed to be healthy or something, so I tried it and it tastes so bad." She made a tragic face. "It tastes _so bad,_ Loki."- He felt a little thrill hearing her say his name.- "And now I've got 19 teabags of it left, so thank god you like it then, I suppose, because it would just sit on the back of the stove forever otherwise."

Loki smiled at that. "Well, you could always throw it away, yeah? No point keeping it if you don't really like it."

"Oh my god, what?" Darcy asked, her eyes huge. "Throw away perfectly good tea? Jesus Christ, you are literally insane. I paid like three dollars for that! It'd be like tearing up three dollar bills and then setting them on fire. Do you know how wasteful that is? Not to mention dangerous. Fire spreads, man. Fire. Spreads. Just ask any forest. Or Katniss." She pursed her lips. "Well, never mind about Katniss, but definitely forests."

Loki laughed, wondering what Katniss was, and held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay," he said. "You win. It'll make for a nice conversation piece when you have grandchildren." He made his voice really high pitched, "'Grandma,' they'll say, 'why do you have that tea? We've never seen you drink it. Is it cursed?' And you'll say," He scrunched his shoulders and shook his finger at pretend children. "'No dears, it's not cursed. It cost three dollars, though, so I'm never getting rid of it. Take a good look at it, young'uns. One of you is going to inherit it when I die.'"

Darcy burst out laughing at that. "Oh god," she gasped. "Ooooh, ouch. My belly! Ahahaha...oww. You pretend to be me so well."

Loki felt this warm glow descend on him as it sunk in that he didn't need to be so careful around her or filter what he said, the way he did with most people. She seemed to like it when he was a bit weird. It was nice. Oh, she sometimes got all up in his case and really intense, but it was almost an ironic intensity, because he could tell it was all in fun.

The kettle started whistling shrilly and Darcy cringed. "Ack! Shhh, my baby, hush now. Don't cry like that. Oh god, I'm so sorry," she cooed to the kettle as she hurriedly lifted it from the stove and turned the flame off. She caught him looking at her as she was pouring the water into the cups.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," he said, smiling.

"It's stressful, okay? I always feel like a murderer when I make tea, because the kettle always ends up screaming at me and it's just scary...so...shush."

"Shushing," he promised. "Except," he couldn't help it. "Why not just use the microwave?" He nodded to the microwave sitting on top of her short fridge, belatedly noticing the unplugged cord hanging down the side of the fridge.

"Microwave it! Are you serious! Oh sure. Microwave tea. Sounds like a good idea, right?" she paused for a millisecond before barreling on. "Wrong! They're super unhealthy! I don't want to drink radiation, I want to drink tea. That poisonous machine is just here from the last tenants. No. I like to make my tea the old-fashioned way, thank you very much. Complete with the guilty murderer feelings."

Loki couldn't help laughing. Really, microwaves were perfectly safe, but he like how adamant she was about what she believed in. And he loved how she was constantly moving. Her expressions, or her arms...or her mouth. She was just always in motion. He wondered what she was like when she'd had a lot of sugar, or caffeine, and smiled at the mental picture. It was probably a good thing she appeared to be a tea-drinker.

She got the milk from the fridge and put it on the table.

"I'm going to let you pour it yourself because tea is sacred and I don't know the way you like it," she stated.

_Be still my heart_, he thought. "Thanks," he said, just putting a dash in.

She reached for the milk. "Well, you're welcome."

"Wait," he said as she poured milk in her tea. "What are you doing? Isn't that a fruit tea?"

"Yup," she stirred it around with her spoon. "Mmm."

"Doesn't it curdle though, when you put milk in?"

She grinned. "Oh my god, yes. And it tastes _so good_. It's all creamy and yum." She tilted her cup for him to see. "Look at that. Just look at that yummy curdling."

"Ugh," he said, making a face and leaning back. "Disgusting."

"Oi! Sacred tea rule. Yeah? Mr. black-tea drinker. How about a little respect?"

Chuckling, he shrugged defeat. "Okay, okay. You're right."

She glanced at the clock. "Aaah!" she cried, bringing the tea into the living room. "Come on! It's gonna start soon!" He followed.

The living room was small, but cozy. The front door opened into it, and there was a short hall at the far end that led into the kitchen, which was -again- small, yet cozy. To the left of the living room were two doors, which he assumed were a bathroom and a bedroom. The couch was against the right wall, and a coffee table with the TV on it stood about three feet away. The couch had three blankets of varying warmth degrees, and a few throw pillows. A lamp stood next to the couch, and she turned it on.

"Can you get the light?" she asked, curling up on the couch holding her cup of tea. She turned the TV on. It was already set to BBC America. He wondered if there was a story there, but he decided to just turn the lights off.

"Oh, wait!" she said, looking up at him with big eyes from behind her mug. Loki felt a little ache somewhere near his heart. She was _so_ beautiful. "Can you get the carrots?" she batted her lashes at him flirtatiously and he could see a wide smile curl up beyond the outline of her mug. "Please?"

"Sure," he said happily, and went to get them from the fridge. From in the kitchen he heard her call, "Also the hummus! I want me some hummus! ...Please."

He grinned to himself. "Oh, Loki," he shook his head. "you are fucked."

"Oh my god thank you sooo much!" Darcy exclaimed on his return. "My hero."

His heart did a little skip. _Calm down, buddy, _he told it. He sat down next to her and offered her the food. "Milady."

The opening credits started, and he remembered again how excited he was for this. It was such a good show.

"Ooo-eee-ooo ooo-oo-ooo," Darcy sang along.

They looked at each other and grinned. Loki started singing too, his social anxieties forgotten in the moment.


	6. Chapter 6

_ Wait, what? _ Loki wondered as his eyes snapped open at his phone's alarm. Where even was he? This wasn't the B&B, and it certainly wasn't his apartment back in Boston. _Ooooooh, yeah,_ he thought as he unwound himself from the couch. He remembered now. He'd slept over at Darcy's.

* * *

(The previous night...)

During the first commercial break, Darcy muted the sound and looked at the empty bag of carrots with big, tragic eyes. She turned to Loki. "They're all gone," she said sadly.

He was impressed. He had only had a few, so she had devoured almost the entire bag in about fifteen minutes. Though he had really bought them for himself, he didn't mind. It surprised him, because he was normally much more possessive and liked to keep his own things for himself.

"I see that," he said, smiling at her. She smiled occurred to him to wonder if something more was going to happen. Would she kiss him...?

"Arrrrghgh! You're such a bad influence on me!" she cried, still smiling, but scooping up a pillow and burying her face in it. "I can't believe you. I literally cannot believe you." She shook her head to emphasize her disbelief.

"Whaaaa?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

"It was you and your stupid, healthy eating ways. You turned me to the dark side." She looked back up at him. "I can never love again now."

"Never what again?" Surely he'd heard that wrong?

"Never. Love. Again." She threw the pillow over the coffee table. He smiled bemusedly as it landed on the floor. "I had contentment! I was happy! Well, so there were some rough spots. There were some tough choices ahead of us. But I was willing to commit. I was! I was at a turning point. But then _you_ come along with your surprisingness, and with your fancy words and your tasty carrots, and what was I supposed to do! They were like my Rory Williams, and you were the Doctor- come to save me from the staidness of the world I knew. Your carrots were the TARDIS. But now I know!" She tilted her head to the ceiling and raised her arms as if to call on God. "Now I know!"

Loki couldn't help but start laughing. She was so ridiculous and cute.

Darcy turned back to him. "That's right," she said. "Ice cream is my Rory Williams, aaaaaaand I _want some_."

"Well, I doubt it'll wait two thousand years for you," he quipped. _Ice cream that old would be crawling in freezer-burn, _he noted with amusement.

She shushed him, and un-muted the TV. "Shut up, you. God you talk so much. But it's coming back on, so hold thy silence."

It was indeed coming back. He was really enjoying this episode. It was certainly true, too, that it was funner to watch with someone else who loved the show. Or maybe it was just because it was Darcy. She was really into it. She gasped at surprising parts (although, truthfully, she had a broad sense of the term 'surprising'), or she got really tense when it was suspenseful. She smiled through almost the whole thing, and laughed heartily at the exchanges between River and the Doctor.

The rest of the commercial breaks she filled with chatter and good-humored ragging on him. He teased her about wrapping herself in a blanket even though it was quite warm out, and she called him a Scrooge.

"How does that even make sense?" He'd asked. "Scrooge was the guy who didn't want his workers to have the day off for Christmas. All I'm saying is that you're crazy to be under a blanket when it's like 85 degrees in here."

"Oh, I'm sorry" she'd said. "I can't hear you over the sound of how _factual my brain is_."

Basically, he'd had the best night of his life. After the episode ended and they'd discussed it's brilliance and Moffat's deviltry, Loki was considering what he should do- whether he should just take a chance and ask her out for real, or what

"Ugh," Darcy had said just then, "If I ever do find my soul-mate, Moffat will probably just kill him off."

While he was trying to think of a way to phrase his question, he was interrupted by a loud boom. Darcy shrieked and jumped. A moment later rain started pouring down. A streak of light lit up the windows.

"Oh, fuck everything," Darcy had said quietly, something in her tone making Loki look at her in concern.

"Are you okay?" he'd asked. She had turned paler.

"Me? Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, no. But yeah. It's fine. It's whatever."

Another boom sounded. The storm must have been pretty close, because it was incredibly loud, and the lightning followed it quickly. Darcy jumped once more, and huddled into the back of the couch, wrapping her blanket around her firmly.

Loki was really worried now. She was just so _pale, _and her eyes were wide and frightened. "Darcy? Sweetie, it's okay," he said in as soothing a voice as possible. He could have bitten his tongue at the unexpected endearment, but it had just felt right.

She whimpered a bit and then made a sound of disgust. "I'm not usually like this! I'm so sorry! This is completely pathetic of me." She sounded miserable. He made a noise as if to disagree, but she ignored it. "I know! I know. It's just a thunderstorm. I'm over-reacting in a major way. I don't even know why, honestly. It doesn't make sense."

"Well," Loki smiled in a hopefully comforting way, "that's why they call it an irrational fear."

Darcy shrugged miserably. "I guess so. It's so annoying, though! I've just always been like this with thunderstorms, ever since I was little. My mom says that when I was really young she would get all the pots out and a pair of ladles and she would join me in hitting them, and that that helped." She made an attempt at a smile. It fell far short.

"Well, if you wanted, I could go get some pots and we could see if it still works," he offered, completely serious. He felt so useless. He wished he could just help her in some way. She looked up at him with her wide blue eyes, and they sort of misted over like that was just the nicest thing anyone had ever said and he wanted to just hold her in his arms, but he couldn't find the courage.

Strangely enough, just as the thought crossed his mind, another boom of thunder came and Darcy flinched, asking, "Okay, I know this is really stupid and everything, but can I just...I mean, can you just...like, hold me or something?" She blushed, looking at the coffee table instead of him. "You just seem really calm and everything and I...It would just...I mean, obviously you don't have to. Oh god!" she said looking at him in surprise. "How are you supposed to get home? You can't drive in this. Your bike totally _is_ a death-trap right now. Just," she bit her lip, looking the closest he had seen to vulnerable. "I mean, you could just stay here. As a friend, of course," she rushed to explain.

She flinched again at the thunder. The rain was pouring down heavily. It really would be dangerous to ride in this weather, but to be truthful, he didn't want to leave anyways. Especially when she was like this.

"Come here," he said, holding his arms out to her. Her relief was abundantly clear as she quickly scooted over to him, blanket in tow. She lay across his knees, back to the sofa's armrest, and his arms closed to hold her firmly in his grasp. She sighed in contentment, her head resting against his chest. He smiled at how warm her breath was against him.

"Thanks," she said on an exhale, her lips moving against his chest.

"No problem," he said, his chin resting on her head. He marveled at how strange it was that she was just the perfect height for him to be able to do that. _But of course_, he thought to himself. _Everything _about Darcy was just perfect for him.

She was very stiff at first, and kept tensing at every boom of thunder, but she relaxed in slow degrees. First her shoulders, then her back, her legs, her chin, and so on. He noticed that she had matched her breathing to his, as well.

Loki had never been in this position before. He liked it though. She kept talking about her childhood- apparently she had been quite the troublemaker. He could picture it easily. He would offer a comment here or there, but was content to just hold her and listen to her voice. Like everything else about her, Darcy's voice was beautiful. _Somehow like raspy honey_, his brain supplied, and he smiled at the strange comparison.

"What about you?" she asked sleepily, sometime later. The thunder had mostly quieted, though Darcy didn't seem to have noticed. The rain still pounded outside. Wasn't New Mexico supposed to be all dry and rainless? He supposed it must be a highly unusual freak storm. At some point they had shifted on the couch so that he lay along the back of it, and she lay with most of her body on top of his, his arms still clasping her to his chest. She lay with her head still on his chest and her eyes shut (he had peeked). "What about your family?"

His family...he had issues with his family. Normally he wasn't big on sharing, never really talked about the past at all really, but this was Darcy and it was one of those nights that you knew you would look back on later as being one of the most important of your whole life, and so he said, "I don't really know who I am."

"What do you mean?" Darcy asked. Her words were slightly slurred from sleep. It must be near one or two in the morning by now.

"Well, I'm adopted." The word 'adopted' still held so many feelings in it. Betrayal, disillusionment, confusion...

"Really?" Darcy asked, craning her neck to look at him with sympathetic, bleary eyes. He nodded. "I'm sorry," she said. Her voice was filled with sincerity. "I'm adopted too."

He was surprised. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. You speak of your parents very fondly though."

She smiled up at him before returning her cheek to his chest. "Nothing to be sorry for," she murmured. "I love them. I used to want to find my birth-parents, but...not anymore. I love my mom and dad. My _real_ mom and dad."

He was glad for her, but he felt an ache in his heart. He still desperately wanted to find his own birth-parents. And he couldn't forgive his adopted-parents. If he had known, being raised...but, "Of course, mine didn't tell me I was adopted until I was seventeen. I had to get my driver's license and the woman at the DMV accidentally let it slip. It was the weirdest thing. I confronted my parents about it and they tried to downplay it, as if it didn't mean that they had been lying to me my whole life. I went from having a mom, dad, and brother, to being alone- all in one day. It was brutal." He frowned, remembering. "My brother hadn't known either. We used to be so close. I couldn't stand it though- it felt wrong to be there with them. So when I got accepted into college at MIT I packed up and left them. We haven't really been in touch since."

Darcy looked up at him again, her eyes warm with compassion. "Loki, oh my god. That _sucks._ I'm so sorry."

He couldn't hold onto bitterness or anger when she looked at him like that. He stroked his fingers through her hair as she once more laid back against his chest. "Don't worry about it," he murmured. Nothing could really ever be _that_ bad, not at a time like this.

"Sing my something?" she asked. Her words tripped out clumsily from sleep. "Your voice is so...hmm...it's so pretty. Like an angel. An angel from England. Sing. Please?"

He chuckled softly. He really wasn't much of a singer, but he sang anyways, stroking her silky hair.

"Hmmm," Darcy laughed. "Beatles? Really?"

"Don't knock them- they're a classic," he smiled.

"I know. I like them. I just like that _you_ like them."

She drifted off to sleep somewhere between 'Can't But Me Love' and 'Something In The Way She Moves'. He was quite tired as well by this time, and the couch was less comfortable after a few hours. Debating silently for a moment, he decided to just do it. Moving very slowly so as not to wake her, he gathered her up in his arms and carried her into her bedroom. Her room was filled with all sorts of things that he couldn't make out, which made him smile as he laid her on her bed and pulled a sheet over her. She certainly seemed to like to collect things.

Giving her one last look, he went back out to the couch and laid down himself, falling asleep quickly.


	7. Chapter 7

Darcy yawned as she stretched in bed. _Mmm,_ she thought sleepily. _Comfy pillows._

She sat up slowly, rolling her neck. Tea. That's what she wanted. Just some yummy tea and maybe a bagel. Rolling herself clumsily off the bed, she took her baggy pajama t-shirt off, belatedly realizing that she hadn't brought the laundry in from the dryer yet. Bah.

"My life is soooo difficult," she grumbled good-naturedly to herself as she blearily strolled into the living room wearing only a black bra and dark green sweatpants.

The washing machine and dryer were to the left of the front door. Opening the dryer door, she sifted through the clothes looking for a shirt. Thankfully Jane wasn't super-strict on wearing a uniform or something at work, and she let Darcy just wear a t-shirt and jeans, which were her favorites. Picking out an old, yet still bad-ass, fitted Captain America t-shirt, she straightened up to put it on.

"Ah," said an accented rumbly voice. "Oh dear."

"Jesus Christ!" Darcy shrieked, clutching the shirt to her chest in surprise. "Oh my god you gave me a heart attack."

Loki looked distressed, as he stammered out an apology for waking up at a really bad time as he looked pointedly in a completely different direction from her, which was sweet.

"No, no," Darcy said, feeling bad now. She put her shirt on hastily. "It's totally my fault. It's a bad habit of mine, walking around half naked. Somehow I just didn't remember you were here or I'd have been more...erm, ladylike, I suppose. You can look now- I'm fully clothed." Darcy smiled as Loki turned his head cautiously.

"I'm going to make some tea," she said, heading off to the kitchen. "Do you want any?" she asked over her shoulder.

"No thanks," he called.

She heard him rustling around in the living room as she started her tea, and she couldn't help but think of last night. It almost didn't seem real. It had felt like a dream at the time, and now in the morning it didn't seem much more plausible. If she hadn't felt so familiar with Loki- like she'd known him forever and ever- then she'd be tempted just to think she'd imagined the whole thing. But she felt so connected to him. It was unprecedented.

The kettle started whistling and Darcy turned it off right away, before it could work itself up.

She thought of her past 'relationships'. In fourth grade Russell Talver had tried to kiss her and she'd punched him. She'd gotten detention for that, which still made her angry. Eighth grade she'd had a crush on Michael Andrews, but he'd transferred before she'd worked up the courage to say anything. In high-school there was Brett Denver. They'd gone out for seven months before she realized that he just bored her. Then college, where the guys were always out drinking or partying, and she'd just had no interest in that.

"You just don't connect to people easily, babe," her mother had said back in twelfth grade when Darcy had despaired of being alone forever. It was true. Darcy had little patience with people and found it difficult to meet anyone she felt were worth the effort to get to know.

"Any chance I could snatch something to eat?" Loki asked, coming into the kitchen.

"Not much, I'm afraid," Darcy said apologetically. She didn't have much in the way of spare income, so she tended to go light on the groceries and just go to the supermarket often. "There are bananas, bagels, and cereal. That's kind of it."

"Ooh, bananas," Loki smiled, picking one out of a bowl on the counter. "I love bananas."

Darcy made a face. "Yuck."

"What?" Loki asked. "You don't like bananas?"

"They're the food of the devil."

Loki laughed. "Why do you even have any then?"

"Another moment of weakness!" Darcy despaired dramatically. "I was trying to be healthy." She pouted. "I make terrible decisions when I'm trying to be healthy."

Loki shook his head in amusement.

Chugging her tea, Darcy realized it was getting quite late and she still needed to wash her face and put jeans on, etc.

"Oh, shizzle. We should go soon. Here, hold this," she said, handing her cup to him and rushing off to her bedroom to get ready.

* * *

Loki smiled and put her cup in the sink. He hesitated. _Oh what the hell_, he thought, and washed it. It just felt like the right thing to do.

He tried not to think about how he'd seen her in her bra, and how she'd looked incredibly sexy and just- fuck. It was a bad road for his imagination to wander down. Although, really, who would wander down that road when they could sprint down it recklessly.

There really wasn't much for him to do, so he wandered into the living room to check out the bookshelf he'd vaguely noticed the other night. It was funny to hear the muffled sounds of Darcy getting ready. She would run from her bedroom to the bathroom muttering to herself and opening cupboards, coming back out holding some new item she'd been searching for: a pair of earrings, a brush, jeans, a belt.

Each time she made the trip she would kind of smile at him and make an unintelligible noise of amused frustration meant to convey something along the lines of: "Oh dear, see how silly I am? I'm making yet another trip. My brain, you know. Too many jumbly bits to keep everything straight." It was quite entertaining.

In between her little trips, he studied the contents of her bookshelf, which was, in fact, mostly home to DVDs, with a small selection of books tucked away in a top corner or of the way. Clearly she was more into TV than reading.

She owned Firefly, Seasons 1-5 of Doctor Who, the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spinal Tap, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Third Star, season one of Sherlock, seasons 1 & 2 of something called Suburban Shootout (which looked quite peculiar), seasons 1-3 of Arrested Development, P.S. I Love You, Hot Fuzz, and 10 Things I Hate About You. He was amused by the fact that she seemed only to own DVDs that were either quite comical or quite sad.

Off in the corner her books sat awkwardly, out of place among all the DVDs. There were four paranormal romance novels by someone called Kresley Cole, and then she had The Great Gatsby, some books by a John Green, and the 100 Greatest Poems of e.e. Cummings. It was a bizarre mixture, and seemed very much in keeping with what he knew of Darcy.

Looking around, Loki thought of his own apartment back home. He'd never really been one for decorating and such. It was really basically a bedroom with a bed and a dresser, a couch and tv in the living room, and a table and two chairs (he never had people over, but his optimism had gotten the best of him). He liked things to be very neat and organized. It just made everything easier. Darcy's place on the other hand...well, she had a different approach. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was about her place- but it had something, some spark, some comforting factor, and that made it feel like a home. She wasn't messy, necessarily- because everything felt like it should be where it was- more like her stuff just took up more room than it ought to physically be able to.

"Okay, okay," Darcy said, slightly out of breath as she emerged once more from her bedroom. "Sorry! I know- I take a while in the morning, which is a bit ridiculous since I don't even do much but of course I forget where everything is and spend ten years looking for socks and such...But I'm ready now. Ugh. Finally. How 'bout you?"

It hit Loki almost painfully, as he stood there in her living room, surrounded by her possessions, the smell of lemons floating around for some peculiar, welcome reason- how utterly gorgeous she was. She was wearing a t-shirt with a star on it that he was sure meant something (though he was sure that everything Darcy did/wore meant something), and jeans, with silver stud earrings, and black rectangular glasses. Her mahogany, and what he knew to be silky, hair was in a high ponytail that waved slightly down her shoulders, and her eyelashes were dark and her lips were pinkish-red, and she was just so fucking gorgeous that, embarrassingly, he couldn't really remember what she'd asked and floundered for a moment before she prompted him.

"You ready? We probably should really head out."

Right. "Oh. Yes," he said eloquently. "We should probably...get on...out there...to that work...thing."

"Boy," Darcy smiled, "I like the way you be talkin'. Let us depart. Allons-y, Allsonso!"

Outside, they got in/on their respective vehicles. "See ya soon, then," Said Darcy, saluting him jauntily. "Don't die on your little bike."

"Careful of reefs with that boat of yours," he tossed back happily, putting his helmet and leather jacket on.

* * *

They arrived at the lab at the same time and walked in together, laughing as Darcy teased him about his slight facial hair.

"Well I hadn't brought a razor with me, so, yeah," Loki smiled, a bit embarrassed. He liked to keep his face shaved, so it felt kind of strange and itchy. He couldn't stop stroking it, which Darcy thought was hilarious.

"You look totally evil when you do that. Like some kind of brilliant villain going, 'Ah yes. I am stroking my beard as I dwell evilly on my evil plan of evilness. Muahahaha.' It's so funny."

"'Evil plan of evilness'?" he asked, quirking a brow.

"Oh shut up," she laughed, smacking his arm lightly. "You know. Because you're so un-evil,, and- oh, well you...stop those eyebrows! No! Bad skeptical eyebrows! Bad! Un-evil is a word and you and your eyebrows can just deal with it!" She shook her head mock put-out and threw her hand over her forehead dramatically. "I'm so unappreciated!" She opened one eye to see how Loki reacted (he had smiled widely and his eyes were all crinkley) before resuming her pose. "It's the curse of being a Time Lord."

Later Loki would find out that that particular phrase came from something called Tumblr, but at the time he just shook his head in amusement. _Oh Darcy,_ he thought. _You silly little delightful thing_.

Darcy was still belligerently defending herself when they walked into the lab-room, but abruptly trailed off on seeing that Jane was already there (of course. She was always early for everything, looking gorgeous, god damn her) and had looked up on seeing them enter and had furrowed her brows in confusion.

_Well fuck-all_, Darcy thought in slight annoyance. _Once more Jane is a kill-joy_. But it was okay. Darcy was glad for the intrusion of Jane, honestly. It really put into perspective she had only just met him yesterday and had kind of disliked him. Today it felt like she had known him her whole life, and she wanted to keep knowing him for the rest of her life, and- in truth, she wanted to know him _biblically_ before too long. Nudge nudge, wink wink. He just made her girl parts happy! And her everything happy. Just, he was like sunshine on a cool day or a breeze on a hot one and he was so pretty, and with that slight shadow from not shaving he looked fucking sexy as all hell and she could _talk_ to him and he liked _Doctor Who_ and HOW WAS SHE SUPPOSED TO NOT WANT SEXYTIMES! His _voice_, motherfucker that accent, and he had actually stayed over and wasn't freaked out and there was no awkwardness and it was all just a little too perfect to seem real. He must have some huge, terrible flaw. He had to! Because no one could be so perfect!

They looked at each other like two kids caught doing something wrong, and Darcy shuffled over to her desk smiling somewhat guiltily, though she realized she really didn't need to feel guilty. She was aware of how Jane was crushing on him, though, so she felt kind of bad that they had come in seeming so chummy.

_Oh whatever, _she thought pragmatically. _Let Jane feel how she feels. I just want to live my liiiiiiife!_

Sighing, and trying not to glance over at Loki too much, she started actually doing her job.

* * *

Jane seemed a bit formal and stiff this morning, Loki noticed. It confused him and made him feel vaguely like he'd done something wrong, because yesterday it had seemed like they could be friends. Trying not to think about it too much, because he always felt like he analyzed things and put more meaning into things than there might be, he just focused on conversing with her about their mutual passion (science, of course) and trying not to notice Darcy (who had put her headphones in again and was swaying and shimmying her shoulders sometimes) too much. Eventually Jane relaxed and by the end of the day they seemed to be friends again.

He vaguely noticed that Darcy left for an hour and then came back, but it didn't really sink in that she'd gone for a lunch-break. When he was fully engrossed in science it was hard to tune back into the outside world.

Eventually though, Darcy broke into their conversation, startling Jane and him.

"Yo dudes," she said from the doorway. "So it's five. I'm out." And opened the door to go.

Suddenly coming back to the here and now, Loki stood abruptly, his chair scraping the floor sharply. Wincing, he called for Darcy to wait and hurriedly said goodbye to Jane.

Darcy had stopped just outside the door and waited with a smile of curiosity. "What can I do you for?"

Loki gathered all his courage (he absolutely hated doing this, it was so nerve-racking), and praying that he hadn't misread what he thought were some pretty large signs, said, "Darcy. I like you." He floundered for a moment but pushed on. "I want to...ask you out. Like on a date. Please."

Darcy looked at him wordlessly, her expression mildly surprised and slightly panicked.

_Fuck_, he thought. _I'm such an idiot. Of course she's not into me. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck-_

Suddenly Darcy smiled brilliantly and blushed. "I...um. Yes. I would like that."

_FUCK YES!_ The world was beautiful. Loki grinned at her, and she grinned at him, and they just stood there grinning ridiculously until Jane accidentally opened the door on Loki because he was right in front of it.


	8. Chapter 8

_Soooo, finally some light smuttiness. Yay! It was my first time writing any, so...fyi there was awkward cringing before I completely mastered it =)_

* * *

They decided to go to a coffee shop, since neither were that crazy about alcohol and they really just wanted to talk. Darcy was so curious about him. He was estranged from his family, but did he plan to be forever or was he going to try and mend it? Did he like teaching? What did he even teach? What was it like in Boston?

Darcy gave him directions to her favorite coffee shop, Express Yourself Coffee, and they left from the lab. Her belly was full of happy/nervous butterflies. She still felt totally comfortable with him, but there was an added element of anticipation and excitement, knowing that he felt the same way about her.

Typically to trick her brain into being itself and not holding back her personality around guys she had to pretend that they were all gay and therefore not interested in her at all. Then she would just feel free to be herself, because as a teenager especially, she had been much more shy and contained. For the most part guys didn't hit on her, anyways, which she appreciated.

At first she'd done the same thing to Loki- pretending he was gay- especially because she was attracted to him but had little experience dealing with it and so wasn't sure what to do. But it was nice not pretending with him anymore. Nice and terrifying and wonderful.

She wondered if he ever thought of kissing her. The idea was so odd to her- like, why would anyone want to kiss _her? _Not that she thought she was unattractive- because she was actually quite comfortable with the way she looked (though when Jane was around, she would make even the most beautiful woman despair of something or other about herself), but it was like...'dude, it's just _me_. In what way am I even a sex object of any kind?'.

She pulled into the parking lot and unbuckled, examining her face in the visor's mirror. Hmmm. Pretty decent. She liked to keep her make-up minimal, especially since coming to New Mexico where the heat melted make-up pretty fast, so she'd stopped using eyeliner and just gone with waterproof mascara. This meant she typically didn't have to worry about smudges, which was awesome. Make-up was fun, but it was an easy road to paranoia.

She put some Chap-stick on and smacked her lips. She hadn't worn lipstick today, but they were a decent-colored pinkish. Overall she felt okay about how she looked, and was smiling foolishly at nothing when Loki pulled in a few moments later.

He looked so goddamned sexy as he pulled his helmet and leather jacket off. It was rather hot, and it made her happy that he still wore the jacket even though it must be uncomfortable and stifling. Safety first and all. But she thought it said something about him, too. That he took precautions. That he wasn't reckless. That he was willing to put up with some discomfort if he thought it was the right thing to do.

Because he was just that kind of sweet, old-fashioned man, he held the door open when they walked in. Darcy wasn't exactly sure why, but she really liked it that he did that. Like she was someone he just wanted to make happy and feel special.

* * *

"Okay," Darcy said, sitting down at the table. "So tell me things." She figured she'd start general and then work down to specifics when it felt right. She was curious though, how he would answer such a broad question.

Loki smiled and fiddled with the cardboard ring around his tea. "Wow. Okay." He was silent for a moment. "Anything?" he asked.

"Anything," said Darcy. "Anything at all."

"Well...I like dogs. My favorite season is winter. I have a phobia of talking on the phone-"

"Really?" Darcy broke in, disbelieving. "Sorry," she said. "I guess I could kinda see that. I just love talking." She smiled at herself and Loki chuckled. "On the phone, that is. Obviously I'm quite quiet in person. But sorry! Anyways, continue- this is good."

"Okay...I'm allergic to flowers. Umm. I'm a light sleeper-"

Darcy started giggling. She couldn't help it.

Loki blushed slightly when he realized how that could be taken. "Oh my god," he groaned self-deprecatingly. "It sounds like I'm advertising why you should be with me or something. 'These are the things I like, and also- hey, don't worry, if someone breaks into the house in the middle of the night I'll know right away and be able to protect you with my manly muscles,'" he clenched his biceps to demonstrate his 'manly muscles' (which were quite, erm, delicious, which didn't really make sense yet Darcy's mind accepted it wholeheartedly). "'because I'm a light sleeper. So that's why I would make a good boyfriend!'" he finished, adopting a salesman-type pitch and smiling at his own ridiculousness.

He wasn't usually like this- he was much more reserved and less apt to make fun of himself. But Darcy just had this way of not taking things too seriously, which made him feel safe and relaxed and able to actually _be_ less serious than he normally would. He wondered vaguely what Thor would think, if he could see Loki now.

"You would be," Darcy said, her giggles subsiding but her smile still fixed, like it seemed to be most of the time she was around Loki.

It took Loki a moment to figure out what she was saying. Wait... "Do you- do you _want _me to be your boyfriend?" His heart sped up a thousand percent.

Darcy blushed slightly. "Well, yes. I do a bit." Which was an understatement. She was frickin' _crazy_ about him. She knew she should just stop with that, but...she couldn't. Her mouth took over (_Dirty mind, Darcy!_ She yelled at herself as her libido suggested other situations where her mouth could take over. _Bad Darcy. Stop that!_).

"I like the idea of you being..._mine_. Which, I don't know- maybe it's too much for you too fast, I mean this is totally crazy, right? This doesn't happen! We just met yesterday, and honestly I didn't really...well, whatever, but I mean you're probably totally freaked out because here we are on a first date and then I just go 'Oh wow, so yeah, let's totally be really sudden and serious and that sounds like a lot of fun: now you can be saddled with a girlfriend and all your manly sowing of seeds will be cut short because you've got to know right up front that I would be _very _cross if you ever cheated, and I have a taser and I know how to use it, so you'd just need to like, stay far away from other women because they've got to be all the fuck over you and I don't know if I can handle that because I just want you to be mine, so-"

Darcy squeaked as Loki's lips stopped her ramblings. It was unexpected, but entirely welcome, and seeing as how she did love to use her mouth (_Bad Darcy! Dirty! Dirty!),_ she kissed him back, her tongue tasting his lips curiously. They were soft, yet firm at the same time in some beautiful, masculine paradox, and he tasted like Earl Grey. She responded enthusiastically. It had been...quite a while since she'd kissed anyone (let alone other things), and she'd forgotten how nice it could be. His facial hair was slightly bristly. It felt both sexy and funny. Like she wanted to somehow rub her cheeks on it while simultaneously licking his collarbone, which, on glancing down at his collarbone, she felt was an entirely justified reaction.

Loki had leaned across to reach her, his elbows on the table, but they worked their way up to her shoulders as he stood up- still across the table from her- to try and lean in closer. He accidentally knocked over his tea, though, and they sprang apart as the tea spilled onto the floor.

"Fuck," he muttered.

"Sweet Jesus!" she shrieked in surprise, then started laughing. Loki joined in, shaking his head. They were both a bit flushed and in high-spirits.

"I'll get that," Loki said and got up to get some napkins. Darcy threw the cup away.

"So that was exciting," she said when he came back a moment later.

He grimaced, feeling slightly embarrassed yet overall extremely happy. "Yeah, sorry about that little tea mishap. That was quite smooth of me."

Darcy grinned. "Oh, yeah! The tea thing. That was exciting too."

Loki grinned as well. They just sat there grinning at each other with the wet napkins on the table between them for a while before Loki shook his head, yet again, at his own besottedness and threw the napkins out.

It had been so nice, kissing her. More so than anyone else he'd ever kissed, which, admittedly, wasn't _that_ many. But this was _Darcy_, and he figured that even if he'd kissed a thousand women before, she would still be the best.

"So what now?" Darcy asked, looking up at him with her smiling, blue eyes. There was this warm, fuzzy thing going on inside of him.

It had gotten dark out but neither of them wanted to leave each other. There wasn't much point staying at the coffee shop seeing as they both were over the whole tea idea and it would be closing soon anyways.

"There's a park right across the street with a lake," Darcy suggested. "Which surprised me when I first came here, because I thought it was all just sand and, like, a total desert, but- well. That's not important." They shared a nonsensical grin. "We could go walk through there. It's really nice. Sometimes there are ducks..." She wondered if anyone had ever been lured into something with the promise of possible ducks.

"I would love that," Loki said, truthfully. He liked nature, and would go on hikes when he visited other cities for his work. Sadly, there wasn't much hiking to be done in Boston. While walking through a park wasn't _exactly _hiking, it was still being outdoors- which would be a welcome change. He'd been cooped up indoors for the past couple days.

They left the coffee shop and headed across the street. There were a few people around- some bikers, a woman walking her dog, a jogger- but it was quiet. No cars went by. It was clear out and the stars were showing off. A full moon peeked out from halfway behind a fluffy cloud. There was something magical about just the sound of their feet hitting the ground, the swish of a bike's tires in the distance.

Darcy took in a deep breath. "I love this air," she said on an exhale. "It's so much cleaner out here than where I'm from. That's one of the biggest differences about this place, for me."

Loki took a deep breath, too. The air was cool and crisp- more what you might expect from an autumn day rather than a summer one- and it made him wistful for winter and snow and the wind. For some reason he just loved the cold.

It was nice here in New Mexico, though he loved his Boston. The air was definitely cleaner here, and somehow brighter.

"Where _are _you from?" he asked.

They had gotten to the park and found a trail leading towards the lake. It was a very open park with few trees, but the few they did have were giving off a pretty, floral scent.

"I'm from Virginia. Willowdale, Virginia, actually," Darcy said, picking a stray leaf off of a tree's overhanging branches and studying it. "I love it. It's actually a pretty populated place because we have like ten colleges or something ridiculous like that, so there's lots of twenty year olds." She dropped the leaf, bored of it. "But there's lots to do and we've got some nice museums- my best friend and I used to go sneak into the film festivals every summer." She smiled, thinking of it. "Of course we got caught every time, because we were terrible at pretending we were twenty-one."

"Twenty-one? For a film festival?"

Darcy cleared her throat. "Ah," she said. "Yeah, well, some of the films had a lot of adult...elements to them. Also they served all these fancy wines for some reason that I don't understand, so it was all strictly legal-aged people." She laughed. "Ahaha, and me and Katie- that's my best friend- we would stuff our bras with socks-" Loki chuckled at the mental image, "because we were fourteen when we started going, and we were still quite...erm. Undeveloped, I suppose."

They were in sight of the lake now. It was bigger than he would have expected New Mexico to be able to sustain, though not that big, really. There was a red painted, wooden bridge that crossed it in the middle where it dipped in like a waist and flared out again on either side.

"They would close off a few streets downtown for these festivals and they'd bring in these huge projection screens that they'd place every so-and-so amount of space apart and everything, and their would be these concession stands under tents that had wine in coolers that you could buy for lots of money, and- this whole thing is roped off and there's people keeping track of the ages of people going in, mind you- oh, Loki! Look at the swan!"

There was indeed a swan near them as they were walking along the side of the lake. It was adorable how much Darcy's face lit up at the sight of it and she'd stopped walking. She was animated anyways, but her face went all soft at the sight of this swan, for some reason that he couldn't understand but liked. It popped into his head from out of nowhere, that she might look at a child like that, and that it might be their own child that she would look at. It was such a strange, frighteningly serious thought to have that he instantly shoved it away.

"It's pretty," he offered, not really sure what she was looking for. He couldn't help but smile at her.

"It's beautiful," she breathed. "I've always loved swans. I like that they're so gorgeous, but they're really mean and spiteful, too. And the Romans used to use them as guard-dogs. They're _epic_."

He chuckled quietly at that. She'd been staring admiringly at the swan, but shook her head at herself when Loki laughed. They started walking again.

"Sorry about that," she said. "Jeez, I get so distracted sometimes. It's ridiculous."

"I like it," Loki said, and Darcy's heart thumped happily in response.

He was so tall. Walking next to him really made her notice that. It was nice, though. She loved how masculine he was- tall, dark, and handsome. No doubt about it. And he smelled_ really _good. Like sandalwood and fir trees or something. It was intoxicating. They weren't walking _too_ close- maybe a foot or so away from each other- but she kept getting teased by his annoyingly manly scent and wishing she could just be glued to his hip. Her blood got hotter thinking about how the weight of his arm might feel against her thigh if they were to walk hip-to-hip.

"So how did that story end?" Loki asked after a few minutes of companionable silence. His voice hit her all over again- its fucking sexy as hell deep timbre that just made her want to lay her head on his chest and tell him to purr- or do things to him to _make _him purr...hmmm..._No! Stop that! Bad Darcy!_ she told her libido. _Oh yeah,_ her libido said. _That's what he'll be saying...lol what._

Dragging her mind out of the gutter, she focused on the question, straining to remember. It felt like ages had past since she'd been-

"Oh. Right. So, the festival," she remembered. "Okay, so me and my friend would stuff the socks into our bras, and we'd put on clothes from our mothers' closets, and then we'd go downtown-" _Downtown!_ Her dirty mind and desperate libido latched onto the word. _Downtown! Downtown! Go downtown!_ "-and we'd try to be all casual, like 'Oh ho, so just another day at this place I'm most definitely supposed to be, nothing to worry about, go on about your business, oh yes we'll just casually sneak under the rope and- oh no! Foiled again by those pesky old people who go around looking for minors!'" She laughed. "It was pretty ridiculous. We'd get caught. Every time. We went three years running. They'd call our parents, who'd have to come pick us up, and my dad would laugh. Mom though, eh. She'd make me mow the lawn for a few weeks." Darcy shivered. "Blech. Lawns. The Devil invented lawns."

Loki chuckled. They were almost the whole way around the lake by now. A biker swished by sedately. His heart felt full and light. It was a great night to be alive.

"You sound like you were a handful," he said, finding it charming.

Darcy laughed. "Oh boy. You have _no_ idea."

* * *

They stopped at Darcy's car, back in the parking lot near the coffee shop.

"I had a lot of fun," Darcy said, smiling up at him. He was so sexy that it was hard to believe he was real. The moon was paying him outrageous compliments, not that he needed them. But it highlighted his cheekbones and throat as if to say: here. Take these. Take these beautiful things with your mouth. And just imagine if he was naked- we could really go crazy then. .

"Me too," he said, looking down at her. She would have been surprised if she'd known, but the moon was complimenting her, too. She looked ethereal and sexy, and just...she was _Darcy_. "Can I just say- you're really...amazing." He wished he could think of a better, more apt word, but he kept coming back to 'Darcy-like' and he was guessing that that just wouldn't be as descriptive to her as it was to him.

Something sweet wrapped around Darcy's heart and squeezed gently. Without really consciously thinking of it, she went on her tiptoes, and he leaned down at just the right time, and their lips met in the middle. He stepped closer to her, pushing her back against her car door, and she leaned into him, loving the hardness of his body. It was funny how her breasts were like a pillow being crushed (not unpleasantly) between their two chests. _Wow, dirty mind you have failed me miserably at this moment in time_, she thought vaguely to herself before being caught up in the moment again and how his arms were around her waist now and hers were all over his ass, which was firm and quiiiiiiiite nice-feeling, and was it just her or was it getting really hot out here?

The door to the coffee shop opened and the sound brought them back to the present, making them step away from each other slightly guiltily and grin like they'd done something wrong but that neither regretted. A woman walked out and gave them a look before clacking over to her car, her high heels loud and comical in the otherwise silent night.

"I guess...I should probably go," Loki said regretfully, rubbing the back of his head like a small boy might when he knows he has to do something that he doesn't want to.

"Oh," said Darcy, disappointed. She wanted more kissing! _More touches!_ Her libido begged. _More ass! More hard body! Muscles! Yummy neck, rough cheeks, sexy nose! More! MoooOOOOOOoooore! I'm dying down here! It's so lonely..._

"Yeah, I guess we should go home." She fiddled reluctantly with her car keys. He drummed his fingers on his legs.

They both leaned in simultaneously, their lips meeting in the middle once more, teeth clacking enthusiastically in a long, hard kiss that seemed to last forever and yet be over in an instant. He pulled away, breathing hard, and leaving her still standing pressed up against her car door, her lips tingling pleasantly.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" he asked, his voice all gruff and throaty.

Darcy nodded, slightly dazed.

"Until then," he said, smiling down at her, the look in his eyes making her all disoriented and hot.

"Mmmhmm," she thought she said as he walked back to his bike.

He looked back as he was walking and grinned when she was still leaning against her car, tracing her lips absently.

* * *

_There. Are you satisfied now?_ Darcy asked her libido as she drove home. _Are you fucking kidding me!_ It said. _NO I'M NOT SATISFIED WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU GIVE ME A TASTE AND THEN SAY 'Oh no, you just get to lick the ice cream, you don't get to _eat_ it' SO FUCK YOU AND JUST LET HIM FUCK ME_.

_I will!_ Darcy said. _Just calm the fuck down! It's been literally _two_ days!_

Her libido just started crying. _Not for me it hasn't been...all alone in the dark down here and I'm so social. I just want a friend. Just one friend. Is that too much to ask?_


	9. Chapter 9

_So fyi technically the Doctor Who episode I took Amy's quote from (The Girl Who Waited) wouldn't have been out yet according to the timeline I'm using, but...I'm using it anyways because of timeywimey reasons._

_Also, I've never written a sex-scene before, so...I'm sorry._

_Also also: you guys are all really nice. =)_

* * *

It was two weeks later, and Loki and Darcy had been spending pretty much all their time together. Loki was still renting a room at his B&B, but he hardly ever went to it. Not that they were sleeping together! Not exactly. Though it had gotten close a couple times. They would go out and do date-type things and then come back to Darcy's and maybe watch a movie and end up making out and petting each other, but then Loki would just pull back! It was the most frustrating thing! He would usually end up just sleeping on her couch, which Darcy knew was not a normal thing to happen, but it didn't feel weird except that she really wanted him to be sleeping in her _bed_.

Darcy wasn't sure if it was him being a gentleman, if he just wanted to go really slowly, or if he had some kind of issue with sex or what, but she was fed up with it. Tonight was the night. She was going to get to the bottom of this.

Loki was coming over tonight to watch the next episode of Doctor Who that was airing, and Darcy was therefore dressed appropriately: a plain black tank-top and flannel pajama pants with a the Superman logo on them. Yeah, not the sexiest things ever, but they were watching a _movie_ so it would be weird to dress up- and anyways, he seemed to like her no matter what she wore. A study in the mirror told her that she looked pretty damn good, regardless. Tank-tops loved her bosom.

She twirled a piece of her hair around her finger. She'd left her hair down, because he really liked to twine his fingers through it, and it felt really good. Sometimes they'd just lie on the couch and he'd pet her hair, which might sound a bit weird, but she totally understood why pets liked it. It was super soothing and nice.

She'd left the door unlocked for him. There was a knock and then Loki came in a moment later. Darcy felt the familiar excited butterflies that she got every time she saw him after being away for a couple hours.

A quote from a Doctor Who episode actually occurred to her, that was exactly how she felt about Loki. At one point Amy was talking about Rory (_and I _would _think of something like this,_ Darcy thought in amusement) and she said, "You know when sometimes you meet someone so beautiful and then you actually talk to them and five minutes later they're as dull as a brick? Then there's other people, when you meet them you think, 'Not bad. They're okay.' And then you get to know them and... and their face just sort of becomes them. Like their personality's written all over it. And they just turn into something so beautiful."

For a while there, Tumblr had convinced Darcy that the perfect man was Benedict Cumberbatch, which had been sad because she would never meet him. But now she knew...it was Loki. He was the most beautiful man she'd ever met. She was pretty sure she'd started falling in love with him even on that first night, and every time she saw him again she fell a little bit more in love.

"Hello, sexy," he said, grinning that devilish little smile that was pure Loki. She laughed in delight, knowing that he was intending for her to think of the Doctor's words to Idris. She loved that he would do that.

"Sexy, yourself," she said, bouncing over and leaping onto him. He caught her easily and she wrapped her legs around his chest as she kissed him. His body was so hard- it was completely addicting. She just wanted to rub herself all over him.

"You," she said, between kisses, "are really attractive."

He laughed against her lips, which felt really funny and nice. "You're pretty attractive, too," he said. He pulled back and his face got serious as he stared down at her eyes. "You are though," he said, his voice really gruff and manly. "You're really, really beautiful."

Darcy's heart just melted in the face of his sweetness and she kissed him tenderly, their lips lingering.

Loki slid her down the length of his body and kissed her forehead. She loved when he did that- for some reason it made her feel cherished. She held her head against his chest for a minute, his arms around her waist. Especially for someone who hadn't done much dating, it was such a novel, wonderful experience to be able to just hold the man you loved and feel appreciated.

"Tea?" Loki asked, finally.

Darcy nodded against his chest. "Tea."

She loved that they had a routine now. Greet each other, tea, couch, movies/talking, talking/making out after the movie, and then...sleeping in different places. But that last one was hopefully changing tonight.

They retired to the couch a while later and and they lay in their usual positions: Loki sitting lengthwise on the couch with Darcy laying in his lap, her head on his chest. She tried to put thoughts of sex out of her mind (which proved slightly difficult when she could feel his crotch against her back) and just concentrate on the show. But she couldn't really keep herself focused, (though it was almost sacrilege to think it) on the Doctor's adventures when she kept wondering how Loki was in bed and what it would take to get him to have sex with her.

When the show was over she stretched, her body sliding up his and then back down and she could feel him react. She smiled. It was kind of a heady thing, to be able to make such a gorgeous man want her.

"That was pretty-" Loki started to say, but she twisted around and cut him off by kissing him. Usually she would love to discuss TV with him, but not _now_. She'd been thinking about sex with him for a _long_ time, and it was getting _hard_ to think of anything else.

Loki kissed her back, hard and deep. Darcy started to rub herself against him. He felt so _good_. Infuriatingly though, he broke off the kiss. "Maybe we should-" He started saying, breathing heavily, but Darcy cut him off again.

"I want to have sex with you," Darcy said, blushing the tiniest bit. Not that she was embarrassed, but she wasn't used to saying things like that out loud.

Loki's eyes turned a darker, even greener color at that, but he tried to give her a way out. "We don't have to," he said, his voice incredibly throaty, his body hard and hot through his clothes. "I don't want you to think I'm rushing you. We can take this slowly- this is good. This is fine."

Aww. He _was_ trying to be a gentleman. But... "This is _not fine_," Darcy said passionately. "I'm so hot for you right now I'm gonna supernova or something, and then you'll be sorry you didn't have sex with me, and I just want you so bad and you feel so good and fuck if I can think about anything else except getting you to-"

Loki pulled her back down to him and kissed her fiercely, pulling her tank-top up over her breasts. Darcy raised her arms and pulled it off the rest of the way, dropping it to the floor. She reached for his own white buttoned-down shirt and got infuriated with all the buttons. He seriously needed to start wearing t-shirts. Loki just ripped the last couple buttons off and shrugged awkwardly out of it. They were still on the couch, and it occurred to both of them at the same time. Loki scooped her up and they kissed their way into the bedroom, her hands sliding all over his shoulders and back, her breasts crushed against his chest.

Loki placed her on the bed and stared down at her for a moment, his eyes hot, before he followed her down and caged her in with his body, his fore- arms holding him up by her shoulders so he could easily kiss her.

Darcy savored the feeling of him, so hot and muscular and manly, even as she arched up for more contact. He ground his cock against her clit and she gasped, her body hungry for more, more, more.

She shimmied out of her pajama pants as he kissed her shoulders, her neck, swept his cheek across her breasts, his cheeks tickling a bit from their slight stubble. He was now entirely too clothed with only his chest bare, so she helped him out by unbuckling his jeans and slipping them off of him. He was wearing tighty-whities, which made her grin. He took them off and slid a condom on before she could investigate too much further. She would have complained, but something else had gotten her attention ...

"Dayum boy," she said breathily as he kissed his way down her stomach. "You are really good at this- Jesus _Christ_!" She hissed as he slid her thong down and his tongue found her clit. She bucked up to get closer to it. She was so close already, it would have been embarrassing if she hadn't been so turned on that she was past the point of embarrassment.

"Oh my dear sweet lord above," Darcy gasped a few minutes later. "Loki baby I cannot even tell you how good that-eek!- feels, but if you don't get inside me _right now_ then I cannot be held responsible for my-eek!-"

Loki gave one last lick that had her almost to the edge before he looked up, grinning. He looked positively devilish with his slightly stubbly face and his dark hair and a wicked light in his eyes.

"You look so sexy right now," he growled. Moving his mouth up to her neck and kissing up to her thoat.

"Loki!" Darcy screeched. "For god's sake, just _get inside me_!"

Loki laughed against her neck. "So impatient. That's my girl."

Darcy cried out, her nails scratching up his back as he finally entered her. _OH. MY. GOD. s_he thought as he started moving. He completely filled her. _Oh my god ohmygodohmygod-_ "Oh my god! Loki!"

He started off slowly, with long, deep strokes. They were both so turned on though that that didn't last long. He quickly started pounding into her, and she loved it. Christ, the feel of him...

"Darcy! Fuck, you are beautiful," he kissed her hard, almost brutally, but she welcomed it. She pushed her hips up against him, trying to take more of him, wanting to be as close as possible.

"Loki! I'm coming, Loki!"

He sped up somehow, sending her over the edge. She came hard around his cock, the feel of him driving her wild. He came a moment later, throwing his head back and groaning her name.

"Good lord, sir," Darcy sighed as he rolled over next to her. "You are a god."

Loki chuckled, drew an arm around her, and pulled her up against his chest. "You are the sexiest, sweetest woman."

They lay like that for a long time, her head on his chest and his arm around her waist, and talked for hours. She felt like purring with contentment. Their was a delicious intimacy that she wasn't used to. She loved it.

They fell asleep like that, curled up together on her bed, with the sound of the occasional owl hooting through the night.


	10. Chapter 10

Loki basically moved in after that night, discontinuing his room at the B&B. They spent the summer doing everything together. They explored New Mexico on the weekends, and spent the evenings watching movies and arguing over how the Doctor would survive season six. The nights were for sex. Hot, sweaty, glorious sex.

They didn't really talk about the future at all. Loki thought it genuinely just didn't occur to Darcy, but the closer it got to autumn the more he obsessed over it. He had classes to teach back in Boston, he had a life. And he doubted Darcy would be up to following him back. She had her internship here in New Mexico for another five months, and then she had her family back in Virginia.

He couldn't really picture her being crazy about dropping everything and coming back to Boston with him. He wasn't even entirely sure that he _wanted_ her to come back with him. She was amazing. He was sure he was at least halfway in love with her. But...she was too perfect. Everything about their relationship was so good and felt so right that it freaked him out a little bit when he thought about it. Their was literally _nothing_ about her that irritated him, except maybe that she was so absent-minded, and yet he found that more amusing than irritating. He couldn't imagine himself with another woman, ever. Never having been good at commitment, this made a part of him want to cut and run. The rest of him wanted to hang on to this perfect thing with everything he had. The thought of going back home to Boston and an apartment that didn't have Darcy and her clutter struck him as incredibly sad and unwelcome. More and more he'd been dwelling on his estrangement with his family, too, and wondering if he should try and do something about it.

As it got to the first week of August he got a bit panicked. Their was a desperate tone every time they made love, as if he was somehow trying to convince her of something that he didn't understand himself. Darcy finally called him out on it one night.

"Loki, baby, is something wrong?" she asked as she lay on her side in bed to look up at him.

Loki sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. He'd known they'd have to talk about it, but he hated having to actually do it.

"Darcy," he said, "It's almost mid-August."

Darcy looked confused. "Yeah, I know. I love the fall...?"

"I have to go back to Boston in another week. This...it's almost over."

"Oh," Darcy looked shocked. "Right. I mean, of course. Yeah. I don't know what-" she shook her head, "I don't know what I was thinking. Obviously, you have to go back to your life. Because you're not...you don't live here-" she looked like she might start crying, and Loki's heart pinched.

"Ssshh, Darcy, honey, it's okay," he said, stroking her hair. God she had silky hair. "We could try a long-distance thing..." he suggested, though it was halfhearted. He didn't like the idea of half of Darcy. He wanted _all_ of Darcy.

Darcy made a face. "Long-distance? Those never work though, and they always end badly. Plus you have that thing about talking on the phone." And then it dawned on her. "Are we- does that mean-?"

Loki's heart dropped to his stomach. He didn't know where he had expected this conversation to go, but he didn't want it to end up here. "Do you want to break up?"

"No!" Darcy cried. "But...I just don't see what else we're supposed to do." She looked up at him, her eyes wide and sad.

They just looked at each other.

"Do we have to break up right now?" she asked quietly.

His heart turned over. He hated to see her so sad. "No," he said. "We could just wait 'till I have to go if you want. Would you prefer that?"

Darcy nodded. She wanted as much time with him as she could get.

They made love slowly, as if memorizing each other. They didn't sleep much that night. They wanted their memories to be really vivid.

* * *

Loki's last week passed in a snap, seeming to spring up on them out of nowhere- and yet all through the week it had been as if there was a sword hanging above them, just waiting to drop. Their last day together Darcy had taken a sick day and they'd spent it walking in the park and talking, much like they had on their first date. It seemed so long ago- a lifetime ago. It was hard for either of them to remember what it was like before the other.

"So this is it," Darcy said.

"Yeah." Loki studied Darcy's face, absorbing how beautiful and just...Darcy-like she was.

"Well, if anything changes- if you have to move-" Darcy broke off. "Well. You have my number."

"I do. And you have mine, if Boston ever sounded appealing..."

Darcy smiled sadly. "I'll always remember this," she said. "Even if we don't...ever see each other again. I'll always remember this. You're really-" she blinked back tears, "You're really amazing, Loki."

Loki found it hard to swallow past the lump in his throat. He wasn't normally very comfortable talking about his emotions, but this was D_arcy_, and this was _now_, and it just had to be said.

"You too, Darcy," He said. "You're the most beautiful, funniest, best woman I've ever met. I've really enjoyed these months with you. Jesus," he said, shaking his head, "I think they might have been the best months of my life."

Darcy did start crying then. It tore at him. He hugged her tight as they stood on the path by the pond, the swan nowhere in sight. She smelled like her fruity shampoo, and he loved it- would never be able to smell that shampoo again and not think of her. He lay his cheek against her hair and rubbed her back soothingly. Blinking hard against the impulse to cry himself, he said, "Don't worry. It'll be okay." Though he wasn't sure what he was talking about. It sure didn't _feel_ like anything was going to be okay.

"I don't want you to go," Darcy said into his chest, her arms wound tightly around his waist.

"I don't want to go either," he said. _Fuck_, he thought._ I'm going to miss everything about her_.

His phone's alarm went off then, out of place and unwelcome in the quiet of the park, signaling that he should be leaving now to catch his flight. They walked back to the parking lot across the street, having parked by the coffee shop again.

Loki took one last look at her as he buckled his helmet and slid his jacket on. God she looked beautiful. Heartbreakingly so. She looked up at him with her big, blue eyes and he couldn't help kissing her. Her lips were so soft and giving. He made a note of it: _Don't forget that, Loki. Don't forget any of _this.

It was a bittersweet kiss, filled with longing and regret. He forced himself to pull away.

"I hope I'll be seeing you," he said, mentally taking a picture of her.

Darcy laughed sadly. "Me too."

And he drove off.


	11. Chapter 11

The first night without Loki was pretty bad. The second night was worse. Darcy took to lumping her pillows into a man-shape and sleeping on what would be it's chest. It didn't help much. They were too soft, they didn't smell like him, and she couldn't hear his heart beating through them. But she could fool herself sometimes in the middle of the night, and so she kept doing it.

At work she and Jane went back to a sort of placid, quiet friendship. Everything that used to irritate Darcy before about Jane became pretty unimportant. She found it easy to overlook things because she was daydreaming about Loki. Even Tumblr lost some of it's appeal.

She cried for the first week, and then nothing. She just felt hollow. Like she was missing some really important Loki-shaped part of herself, and it became hard to do anything except obsess over the past and what she might have done differently, what she might have said to make him stay.

And why hadn't he asked her to come with him? That was the question she dwelt on the most. He had definitely cared about her- there was no way that he'd just faked liking her for so long. But he'd never said he loved her. Though, she'd never actually said that either, but she'd thought he'd known...

Had he not _wanted _her to come back with him? It had sounded like he'd implied that if she wanted to go to Boston she should come see him, but it was all so confusing- what did that even mean? Would it be like a vacation? Did he want her to move in with him if she went to Boston? Was he even being sincere or was it like when you graduated high-school and people would say, "We'll totally hang out this summer!" and then you never saw them again.

By the end of October Darcy knew she had to do something. She didn't want to wallow in self-pity anymore. Drinking held no appeal for her, but people went to bars to meet people, yeah? She didn't really _want_ to meet anyone else, but it seemed like something that just needed to happen.

So she got all dressed up the first Friday of November and went to a bar. It was weird inside. Loud, crowded, full of people she didn't care about and didn't want to talk to. The scent of alcohol was overwhelming. It felt like a mistake almost immediately, but she stayed because she didn't want to just give up. _I'll just stay for an hour_, she promised herself. Then she could go home and watch funny movies and try to be cheerful.

She sat down on a stool by the bar, ordered a beer, and spent the next forty minutes pushing the straw she'd asked for around the edge of the mug pretending there was a whirlpool inside it and a piece of ice-cube was a ship sailing for new lands. She would have made up names and back-stories for the crew except that some guy pushed past her as she was checking the time and her phone, impossibly, landed in her mug of beer.

"Oh _fuck_!" she exclaimed quietly to herself. Loki's number was in there! "Fuck, fuck, fuck." She fished it out quickly and snagged a bunch of napkins from the dispenser on the counter. It was no good. Her phone wouldn't turn on. Her already low spirits sank even further. She had no connections left to Loki now.

"I am sorry," came a deep voice from behind her.

Darcy looked up, in no mood for making conversation. Ugh. It was the man who'd killed her phone. _Murderer_, she thought uncharitably. _He's probably a terrible person. _She shrugged her shoulders to let him off the hook, and turned her attention back to her phone. Maybe there was some way to save the memory card? She would take it to Radioshack or something, but she didn't hold out much hope.

"Excuse me," the voice again. _Son of a bitch!_, she thought. _I do _not_ want to have to talk to him_.

"What?" she snapped as he sat down on the stool next to her.

He was a huge man. Really muscled. Almost freakishly so. And he had this weird shoulder-length wavy blond hair-thing going on. _So_ not her type, even before Loki. She'd always gone for the more nerdy, slim guys. He looked like he was a huge wrestling fan.

"You are very beautiful," he said, his face apologetic and almost puppyish, "and I just wanted to say again that I am sorry about your phone. I wish to heaven that I had not been responsible for this."

"Yeah," Darcy said testily. "Don't worry about it. It's fine." And she tried to ignore him. But he kept talking! What the fuck! He was _not_ good at taking hints.

"Can I get you something?" He asked. She made no response. It felt kind of mean, but then- he'd just killed her phone, and she didn't want to talk to him.

"It's loud in here. Do you want to go somewhere?" Yes she did. Home. But she still had fifteen minutes left in her hour. Really, it shouldn't be a big deal to just skip out earlier seeing as she was miserable- but the whole point had been that she should get out of the house. So she stayed.

"You seem like the quiet type," he kept going, unperturbed by her stony silence. _Dude_, she thought. _I'm _really_ not. _"I like that. Silence becomes a woman."

"_Excuse_ me?" Darcy could not just let that one go. "What the _fuck _did you just say?"

He just grinned. "Got you," he said. "I knew you talked."

Darcy shook her head, amused despite herself. She felt kind of bad now. He seemed like a nice guy. She felt compelled to explain herself to him. And why not? She was in a bar. This was what normal people did, yeah?

"Sorry," she said. "My boyfriend and I just broke up a few months ago. I guess I'm taking it pretty hard." She swirled the straw around her mug and sighed in exasperation with herself. "But it's been like _sixty_ days! I should be over this, right?"

The man just studied her, his head cocked to the side. He seemed interested though, so she didn't make herself stop. All the things she'd been bottling up inside came tumbling out.

"I just miss him so much. Which is crazy, first of all, because we knew each other for _three_ months! Three months. That's it! Well, maybe three and a half. But that's not a long time! We were probably still even in the honeymoon phase. But he was only here for the summer, and now he's back home and I'm still here and he didn't ask me to come back with him." She looked up at the man next to her. "_Why_ didn't he ask me to come back?" Good god, her voice sounded bewildered and hurt even to _her_.

"I do not know," big guy said, staring intently at her.

She kind of got the feeling that he knew more about her than what she was saying. He had this almost _knowing_ look in his eyes. But she shook the thought off. That was ridiculous; she was just imagining things. Remembering vaguely how she was going to give ice-cube seamen back-stories, she admitted to herself that she had quite an active imagination. Which was probably why she was having such a hard time figuring out just what Loki'd meant when he said that. "If Boston ever sounded appealing..." Ugh. She wished she could just forget about it.

"Maybe you should call him. Ask him."

Darcy laughed shortly at that and held up her phone sadly. He looked slightly guilty. "No, don't worry about it. Really," Darcy said. "I'm probably just making something out of nothing." The more time went by without Loki, the more she doubted that she was remembering things correctly. He just couldn't have been as perfect as she remembered.

The big guy looked like he wanted to say something, but stopped himself. Darcy glanced at her watch. Yes! She could leave now.

"Well," she said, "It's been...weird, talking to you. But thanks. And sorry. And you're welcome. And I don't know what I'm doing now, so I'm just going to leave."

He nodded in acknowledgment and she walked out, feeling his eyes watch her as she left.

* * *

Thor sat at the bar and scrubbed a hand over his face. Well. That hadn't exactly gone as planned. He'd certainly met this Darcy person that Loki had been going on about, but she hadn't been what he'd expected. From what Loki said she was a vivacious, lively woman- but the girl he'd met was subdued and sad.

He felt really bad about her phone too. That had been an honest mistake. It really fucked things up, too, because he'd been trying to get her to call Loki. His stubborn brother refused to call her, yet if they just talked to each other, Thor felt sure they would come to some sort of closure. Loki wasn't doing so good back in Boston...

Thor sighed and downed his beer. Oh well. What was he even doing here? he wondered. Trying to help his estranged little brother, that's what. Fat lot of good he was doing, too. Since he was at a bar though- he walked over to the tiny little brunette that sat at a back table nursing a drink and pouring over some papers. She looked cute with her eyes squinting at something on those papers, all serious-like. Not his usual type, but something about meeting Darcy had him wanting something a bit farther from the young, giggling blondes he usually went for.

* * *

fyi I started writing a story for Thor and Jane that begins here.

s/8188442/1/A_Boat_Appears_on_The_Deep_Blue_Sea


	12. Chapter 12

_August_

Loki drank heavily and watched all the shows he'd seen on her shelves. Sometimes he'd stare at her number on his phone before rubbing his thumb over her name and clicking his phone shut.

Wondered what she was doing.

* * *

_September_

He stopped drinking so he could teach his classes during the days. Tried to lose himself in his science research at night instead. Called himself a fool for never taking pictures of her. Tried to draw her face from memory. He kept every drawing in a box in his closet. It was a big box.

Wondered what she was doing.

* * *

_October_

Had insomnia. Couldn't sleep, so one night he ended up calling his brother. They talked for a long time- about the past, about the future. Loki told him all about Darcy. He had a feeling that he'd actually said a lot more than he meant to, but couldn't bring himself to care too much. Thor was going to try and get some time off of work to come see him.

Wrote some poetry about her. Decided it was terrible and threw it away in disgust. Dug it up moments later and smoothed the pages. Cursed himself for a lovesick sot and put the poems in the box with the drawings.

Wondered what she was doing.

* * *

_November_

Thor made it out to see him and they spent a week together. It felt good, mending their relationship after so many years. He hadn't realized quite how much it had bothered him that he and Thor hadn't been speaking.

Went out with some colleagues from work to try and be social. Didn't like it, so he took up jogging. Usually at night.

His spirits lifted only slightly as winter approached. He wondered if Darcy would have liked the winter. And what would she look like, all wrapped up in mittens, and scarves and hats? Adorable, probably...

Finally broke down and called her, not having any clue what he would say. But it was just a recorded voice saying the number he reached was unavailable.

Wondered what she was doing.

* * *

_December_

Got invited to speak at a conference in Virginia. He felt trapped in Boston, so he accepted- though mostly because Darcy's home state was Virginia. As if by some crazy chance he would run into her at an ice-skating rink and she would invite him home to meet her family.

Wondered what she was doing.

* * *

_December twenty-second_

Ran into Darcy by some crazy chance at an ice-skating rink and she invited him home to meet her family.


	13. Chapter 13

Darcy laughed as she awkwardly shuffled back and forth, unintentionally ice-skating in place. God it felt good to laugh!

"Katie," she gasped, "_What_ on earth!"

Her best friend just stared at her with a straight face and twirled like a ballerina on the ice.

"I don't see what's so funny," she said. "Just because I'm making pterodactyl noises doesn't mean I have to make the face, too."

Darcy snorted. It looked _so_ funny seeing her best friend, who was quite the stylish dresser and looked all fancy and cultured in her ice-skates, proceed to skate circles around her with a blank face making dinosaur noises and crying out things like "I am the master of evolution!"

But that was Katie for you.

They'd always become stranger than normal around each other.

Every winter Willowdale made an outdoor ice-skating rink downtown, and Katie and Darcy had gone down to try their skates out for the first time in a few years. Darcy had proved to be horrendous at it, while Katie had taken to the ice again with the grace of a gazelle, if gazelles enjoyed skating.

"I guess I'm just more talented than you," Katie smirked, sticking her tongue out at a still struggling Darcy.

"No!" Darcy cried in mock-outrage. "Ye shall ne'er be more talented than I! 'Tis impossible! And I will defeat you if it's the last thing I do, evil Princess Humbug! I will not let you steal Christmas with your talent and your beauty! I shall save it!"

She attempted to snatch her scarf as Katie skated past her, but instead ended up falling to her knees on the hard ice. Bah. Still, she was wearing some pretty thick snow-pants because they'd had a snowball fight before skating.

It had been an unseasonably cold, snowy December for Virginia. There was currently eight inches of snow blanketing her parents' lawn, and more on the sides of the roads where the plows had done their work.

"Katie," Darcy fake-whimpered, trying her puppydog eyes on her. "Heeeeeelp me!"

Katie laughed and leaned down a hand to help her up.

"Well that's what you get for trying to stop me from my terrible plot to bring everyone a merry, merry Christmas."

"Oh hush," Darcy groused good-naturedl, craning her neck to follow Katie's movement as she continued skating around her. "As if-"

_Wait._ Was that...? A man had caught her attention.

Darcy shook her head even as her heart pulsed painfully. That would be ridiculous. Loki in _Virginia_, and not even just Virginia, but the downtown of her home-city. Dismissing it as impossible, she focused on Katie once more.

She opened her mouth to tell her that they should probably head back because her family was going to do this sit-down dinner thing. Although, she probably would have phrased it more like 'Katie go away, I need to go eat with my family who loves me and doesn't make fun of my incredible grace and talent'.

But Katie turned to her with a sneaky grin and nodded her head toward the man Darcy had been looking at a moment before.

"Girl, that dude is totally checking you out."

Darcy chuckled.

"Yeah, and he's getting a real eye-full too," she said dryly, not really believing Katie, and gestured to her winter coat and snow-pants. "I feel almost scandalous."

She'd just been making fun of Katie, but, actually...he did kind of seem to be staring at her for quite a while, and there was something about him that just seemed like...

"Oh for fuck sake!" She cried, throwing up her hands and skating awkwardly over to him. _Oh, well, there you go_, she chided herself in annoyance. It couldn't possibly be Loki, because even from this distance she could tell that, yeah his hair was black, but it was also much shorter than Loki's, and faintly curled. Except...

The man was wearing a black leather jacket (how was he not freezing?) and jeans. He watched her skate toward him, a slight smile on his face at her choppy journey.

"Darcy...?" Katie asked in confusion, having followed her.

But Darcy didn't hear her. Her heart jumped wildly in her chest. She could see his face now.

"Loki?" She breathed in disbelief.

Loki grinned hugely.

"Darcy," he said, rolling her name off of his stongue slowly, as if savoring it.

"Oh my god," Darcy exclaimed, her brain still reeling. She poked his chest with her finger. Yep. He was real. "Oh my god!"

"Oh my god," he agreed, still grinning.

"Oh my god," Katie interjected. "So do you guys know each other or something?"

Darcy had forgotten about Katie. Whoops. She couldn't stop staring at Loki. Her eyes devoured every inch of him.

"Yeah, we know each other," she said. He really was as tall as she'd remembered. Just as good looking. And his hair! Whoa.

"You got a haircut," she said stupidly, vaguely aware that Katie had tactfully said goodbye. She'd gotten used to his hair being long, but it suited him more like this.

Loki chuckled. "I did indeed. I got a haircut." He stared at her hungrily. Not in a lusty way- more in a soaking-everything-about-her-up kind of way. "You look beautiful."

His deep accent settled over her deliciously. God she'd missed him! But...

"I'm totally suited up," she said, looking down at her feet and wishing she was wearing something more attractive.

"Darcy," he said, and something in his voice commanded that she look at him. "You look _beautiful_."

She blushed with pleasure. "What are you doing here in Virginia?" she asked, hoping with some small part of herself that it was because he'd known she had moved back after her Internship had ended at the beginning of December.

"I was invited down to give a lecture at Culver University."

"Oh." Well that made sense. Still, she was slightly disappointed.

"I wouldn't actually have accepted though, with it being so close to the holidays and an annoying time to travel, but..." he shook his head. "I just liked the idea that we might possibly be here at the same time."

Darcy smiled joyfully at that, her spirits light again.

They stared at each other for a long moment, lost in their own world, and then Darcy kind of came back to the reality, wincing.

"Shoot," she said. "I'm supposed to be doing this dinner thing with my family. I really should go..." but she didn't want to leave him. She'd just gotten him back! Well...her spirits sank. Not really 'gotten back'. More like 'seen'. But she'd been desperate for anything for months.

"Oh," Loki said, unwilling to part as well. "I understand."

"Hey!" Darcy exclaimed. "You should come with me!"

It was perfect! She'd get to spend more time with him, her parents would love him, and she'd somehow convince him that they could work something out- that they could make some sort of relationship. Her mind was already latching onto the fact that she hadn't gotten an apartment yet. She'd been staying with her parents for two weeks while looking. But...what if she just moved to Boston? She didn't have a job yet. Not really anything keeping her from leaving. All that needed to happen was for her to pack a few bags. But of course that depended on whether he still wanted her to move in with him. If he'd ever even meant that to begin with. Or- Jesus Christ!- he could have gotten another girlfriend!

"I-"

"Are you single?" Oh, fuck. She hadn't meant to cut him off. Urgh! Dammit.

He looked surprised at the question. His eyebrow did that quirking thing that she loved, and her heart thumped painfully.

"Am I single? Well, yes. I haven't really-that is, there hasn't been anyone since you." He blushed slightly. She loved that about him- that he allowed himself to be vulnerable sometimes.

"Me too!" Darcy bit her lip. Geez. That was a bit more enthusiastic than she'd been aiming for. "Not that we have to- umm. Not that-" how was she supposed to phrase this? "I didn't mean that, like, we should be together again?" she ended in a question, hoping he would disagree. "I mean, that we don't _have_ to..."

Loki stared at her, his expression just so goddamn tender. She wanted to feel his strong, masculine arms surround her and breath in the scent of his sandalwood, pine-ness that was so comforting. She wanted to be held by him so badly.

"I missed you."

He said it so simply. It could have been meaningless and polite, like what you might say to an old friend that you'd grown apart from. But it wasn't. Darcy could _hear_ in those three words how lonely he'd been, how much he'd longed to hear her voice how he'd gone over in his head a thousand times why they hadn't just tried to find middle ground so they could be together, and how he'd replayed memories of the two of them over and over again... She knew, because she felt the exact same way.

"I missed you too," she said. She could hear the yearning in her voice, but couldn't be embarrassed by it.

He seemed frozen by her admission. Stunned, in a joyful way.

_Fuck it_, she thought, and stepped forward to wrap her arms around him. God, he was so warm. How was he so warm? But he radiated heat. It felt so good to just hold him. His arms came around her a moment after hers went around him, and she was cocooned in a tight embrace- her head to his chest, his heartbeat in her ear.

_This_ was what she'd wanted for so long. _This_ was what she'd missed most for all those months. The intimacy that had always been between them. The feeling that she was home again. Before she'd met him, she'd thought she'd known herself pretty well. Thought she'd known what she wanted. But after being with Loki, she realized: he made her think about things she'd never really considered seriously, like marriage, children, actually having a purpose in her life besides just doing things spontaneously. He made her want more out of life, and he made her want it with _him_.

"God," he sighed into her hair. "I missed you _so much_."

"I want to move to Boston," she said, looking up at him, trailing a hand against the curve of his jaw. He leaned into her hand and closed his eyes briefly. Her heart warmed, reminded of an old thought of how feline he could be at times. "I want to move in with you."

Loki stared deep into her eyes, reading how sincere she was. He grinned.

"I would really like that," he said, and her heart felt so light that she was glad for his arms around her, or else she felt she might just stat rising in a balloon of happiness.

The fingers that had traced his jaw had moved on to his lips, now tracing the curve of them. He kissed her fingers, and suddenly their embrace went from emotionally satisfying to physically frustrating.

Her hand went to the back of his neck to pull him down so she could reach easier. He complied, bending down and brushing his lips to hers. She felt the familiar spark of lust ignite at his kiss, but made a conscious effort not to get too carried away, because they were, after all, on the edges of a skating-rink that was fairly full of people.

He pulled back sooner than she would have liked, but her common sense told her that it was good of him to do. Now wasn't really the place.

"Come to my house?" she asked, using her puppy-dog eyes. "My parents will want to meet you. And don't worry, they're really nice."

Loki chuckled and squeezed her hand. "I would love to meet your parents."

"Yay!" she cried. She was so pleased with him! She was delighted with the world in general. What an amazing thing- that she'd gone skating with a friend only to run into the man who she knew to be the love of her life. And now they were back together and she was going to move to Boston with him and he was meeting her parents and everything was going to be wonderful and thank god because the last few months had been awful, but they were all worth it if it meant that they had a future together now, and she was just glowing with happiness and love.

He walked over with her back to where she'd put her boots and helped her unlace her skates while they caught up on what they'd been doing for the last few months.

The one thing that still lay between them was the fact that neither had reached out to the other, though they both admitted to missing the other and regretting their decisions.

Because Darcy's parents lived close by, they walked from the skating rink to her house, her skates' laces tied together and hanging off of Loki's shoulders. Though it was only six it was already getting quite dark, and they could see their breath fog in the chill, dark air. Their shoulders brushed as they walked, each liking the constant physical reminder that they were, indeed, back together again.

Loki had explained how he hadn't wanted to pressure her into changing her mind by calling her, and that then by the time he decided that he just wanted to hear her _voice, _he couldn't even reach her.

She told him about how she had started to have doubts about her memory of his sincerity (and here he assured her once more that he had meant everything) and worried that she'd misinterpreted things, and that then her phone had gone on to greener pastures and she'd had to get a new number.

Both their minds felt easier at these explanations of why the other hadn't tried to reach them. That it hadn't been a _lack_ of caring, but of too much.

* * *

Loki spent the following couple days getting reacquainted with Darcy, and spending time with her parents. Seeing the loving, supportive relationship Darcy and her adoptive parents shared had him missing his own. He promised himself that in the next couple months he would reach out to them and try to mend their differences.

Christmas eve was festive and full of a holiday cheer. They played charades, Darcy's parents winning easily. Loki saw how close her parents were to each other and knew that he would like for him and Darcy to be like that when they were their age.

That night they drank hot cocoa by the fire and watched classic Christmas movies.

Christmas day they slept in and got up around noon. There were few presents. It was more the idea of family being together than that of materially showering each other with gifts.

Loki had bought her something though, to show her that he was serious about them being together and wanting her in his life. Her face had lit up at the unexpected present when he handed her the envelope, and the way she'd looked at him when she opened it had made his heart nearly burst with happiness.

Inside the envelope were two tickets to Boston.

* * *

_I don't know if people really care, but anyways... I realize that it's a bit weird that a college would ask for a lecturer to come speak during what should technically be Winter vacation, but pretend it's not weird. Pretend it's normal. Good. Thank you. Now I have no plot holes! Well, probably a couple somewhere, but forgive me. I am a mere mortal. =P_

_P.s. This story isn't over. I promise I'll change it's status to 'complete' when it is, but I don't see that happening for a long time. I like writing it too much, and I have plans for it. I'll probably stop updating quite as frequently after a few chapters and focus on the Thor/Jane fanfic I'm writing, but this will be ongoing for a while yet to come. =)_

_P.p.s. You guys are wonderful and I love you. 3_


	14. Chapter 14

They flew back to Boston on the twenty-eighth.

Loki was a little afraid, because he'd never lived with a girlfriend before, but he was mostly just excited. This wasn't just a girlfriend. This was _Darcy_. It wouldn't be some girl's clothes in his closet and mysterious beauty products cluttering his bathroom. It would be _Darcy's_. And he couldn't wait.

It was late by the time they got to his apartment, and they were both really tired. On the cab ride from the airport Darcy had leaned against the door with her eyes closed, her elbow propped against the door, and her head resting on her hand and rambling nearly incoherently about nothing in particular that he could tell. It was adorable. He loved how the more tired she got, the more she abandoned sensical speech. He thought she'd been talking about something to do with cats and detectives, but really, it could have been anything with Darcy's fascinating, circular-logic-loving mind.

Loki's apartment was on the second floor of a three-story apartment building. It was a pretty decent-sized apartment. The front door opened into a mid-sized living room populated by a plush, dark blue velvet couch on the far wall, a lamp, and a coffee table with a TV not too far from the couch. Honestly, though, he barely used his TV. It was mostly just to get Dr. Who and Community when new episodes came out. To the right was his bedroom, home to his bed, a few bookshelves, and a dresser. The bathroom was to the left, behind his bedroom, and the kitchen was to the left of the living room. He kept a very organized, minimal house.

"You need to stop being so cluttered," Darcy mumbled sleepily as he gave her the quick tour. "I refuse to clean up all this stuff. I ain't no maid. Unless there's costumes."

Loki smiled. She really was about to fall asleep where she was standing.

"Come on you," he said, leading her to his- _their- _bedroom. "Time for bed."

"Costumes _and_ sexytimes," she clarified, causing him to chuckle. "And no actual cleaning. I don't clean. I won't do it."

She fumbled with the zipper on her jeans and hopped/tugged them off. Loki grinned when she just looked defeatedly at the buttons on her sweater and then up at him, as if to say, 'How did this even happen? Has the world really come to this? Really? To buttons?'. He unbuttoned it for her and she smiled sleepily at him.

"You're so good at things. Like taking off my clothes."

They hadn't actually had sex yet since being back together. It had just been too weird to think about doing it at her _parents_ house. But the sexual tension had been there, steadily escalating.

"And I know I have a dirty mind, but I'm not cleaning that either. I like having a dirty mind," she said, poking his chest indignantly. Loki simply raised an eyebrow, content to just let her do as she would. He had a feeling that living with Darcy was going to be pretty much just letting her do what she wanted most of the time. Which was completely fine with him.

"And I like how my dirty, dirty mind wants to feel your hard, thick-"

Loki cut her off by kissing her hungrily and pulling her down to the bed. So, okay. She could pretty much do as she wanted, but he had to get involved at some point, right?

They made love passionately. And quickly. Both had enough sexual tension stored up that it didn't take long before they were both spent and exhausted, lying entangled on the rumpled sheets.

"Cock,"Darcy finished on a triumphant sigh, and Loki chuckled.

* * *

Loki woke up the next morning to the sound of Darcy swearing at something in another room. He lay in bed for a few moments, simply basking in the fact that Darcy was at his house, swearing at something. He still hadn't quite gotten used to the feeling of having her back yet.

Getting up, he pulled some boxers on, feeling his lips tilt up at the sight of their clothes strewn on the floor. Never before had there been clothes lying on his floor. He picked them up, his spirits high, and put them in the hamper by his bureau, and then wandered out to find Darcy.

He found her in the kitchen, fighting with his coffee-maker.

She looked up at the sound of him walking in the room, and she frowned at him in frustration. It was so cute to see her frown. She looked like an adorable, disgruntled puppy.

"Your stupid coffee thing won't give me what I want," she said, glaring at it. "The bastard is broken."

His coffee-maker was, admittedly, pretty high-end and complicated to figure out. But she also didn't have it plugged in.

He walked over to the counter and held up the cord. "I think this might have been your problem." He plugged it in and the machine came to life.

"Oh," Darcy said, a bit deflated. "Well. Yeah, probably." She smiled, biting her lip. "I may have overreacted."

"Maybe a bit," he agreed, stroking a piece of her hair. But he loved that about her. That she was so communicative and open with her emotions and thoughts. It balanced him out a bit, because he often didn't realize when he should be sharing more, and so could seem uninterested and hard to read. Or at least that's what some of his ex-girlfriends had said.

"How strong do you like your coffee?" he asked, reluctantly letting her hair slip from his fingers. It was so silky.

"Not strong at all. Like, never-gone-to-the-gymn-and-live-on-carrots strength."

Loki snorted and set the coffee-maker on the right track.

"I thought you were more of a tea-drinker," he commented as they sat at the kitchen table with their mugs of coffee a few minutes later, his optimisticly-bought second chair paying off.

Darcy shrugged, dumping a gallon of milk into her mug. "Eh. Sometimes I just want coffee. But yeah, the thought of the acidicness of coffee usually just makes me nauseous."

Loki nodded, filing this new information away in the Darcy part of his brain.

"So what's the plan today, loverboy?" Darcy asked sassily, the shirt she wore- a button-down of his, he now realized- falling off one shoulder because she hadn't buttoned it properly. "Do we have anything set-" she trailed a finger over his bare chest, her voice sultry and suggestive, "-up?"

Loki quirked a brow and smiled.

"I know!" Darcy said. "It was a bit of a stretch."

"A bit farfetch'd," he agreed, falling back into a game of theirs.

Darcy grinned. "yeah. You must have been quite perplexed."

"Fuck it. Let's just have sex." Even to Loki, his voice sounded almost like a growl.

* * *

They didn't make it out of the house that day.


	15. Chapter 15

"Loki!" Darcy called excitedly, hauling a box into the living room and throwing her purse down. "Come look at all this stuff I got!"

Loki smiled to himself from the kitchen and came out to the living room. Over the past month and a half Darcy had been steadily filling his house with little knick-knacks. It was strange, but not entirely unwelcome. He'd gone twenty-seven years without rubber ducky soap-holders, but now that he had them he could admit there was a certain appeal.

Darcy's newest additions were a bunch of white and blue china dishes, and a cheery yellow teapot. He liked that she was making his home hers as well. He wanted her to be comfortable here.

As he'd expected, his bathroom was, indeed, overrun by feminine beauty products that he didn't understand, and his closet was filled with a mix of their clothes. It was so funny to see one of his suits pressed between two sundresses. So domestic. He hadn't really thought he would ever settle down, and yet it seemed he had. Well, basically. They weren't married, but it seemed pretty inevitable that they would be, someday soon.

She'd gotten curtains for his windows rather than the blinds that he'd been using, and she'd gotten rid of his old rugs and left the hardwood floors bare. The apartment looked so much brighter and more welcoming these days.

Darcy had gotten a job as an administrator at an office building, and she was there Monday to Friday until five. It coincided well with his own schedule that had him home around four from teaching at MIT. He showed her his favorite places in Boston on the weekends, and after work during the week they would tell each other about their days and just generally spend time together. It was a novel experience for Loki to read the science articles that intrigued him so much in front of an audience. Darcy would question him about what he was reading sometimes, and they would get into long discussions about it. Loki's respect for her grew even greater, because while she didn't have a large technical knowledge of much science, she grasped the concepts of what he was talking about quickly and could contribute intelligent, thoughtful input.

It was incredibly nice to live with her, and Loki wanted to show her how much he appreciated having her around. The next day was Valentines Day, and he had something special planned. It had come up in conversation last summer, what Darcy thought about Valentines day.

"It's a bit ridiculous," she'd said, "but I could see the appeal. I wouldn't want flowers though. It's too sad when they just die a few days later."

"A few days?" he'd asked, surprised. He'd had flowers for weeks before.

"Well," she'd clarified, "when you take care of them the way I do it's just a couple days. But the chocolate thing-I could totally get behind that. Oh my god, delicious chocolate and maybe some caramel? Oh yeah. Yeah I could dig that. I could dig that a place in my heart and taste buds."

"What do you usually do on Valentines day?" He'd fished. Somehow none of the relationships he'd been in had overlapped with the holiday before, which seemed to say a lot about the level of commitment he'd had to them. He'd never done anything out of the ordinary for it- it had just been another day.

"Eh," she'd said. "watch TV and read smuttiness. I don't really care about the whole big dramatic gesture type thing. Like horse-drawn carriages by moonlight? Nah."

So he had some idea of what she might like. He was taking the day off of work to set everything up for when she came home at five.

* * *

The next day Darcy was surprised at work by a box of chocolates delivered to her at lunch. She smiled what she was sure must be a really sappy smile, but she couldn't help it. She hadn't really been expecting anything, and she wouldn't have been upset if he hadn't done anything. But that was so Loki- doing nice, sweet things that he didn't need to. The rest of the day couldn't go by fast enough for her. She wanted to get home and show Loki how much she appreciated it.

* * *

Back at the apartment, Loki was just setting the final touches. He had taped fairy-lights all over the walls, because she loved them and had remarked once how cool it would be to live in a house with a bunch of them. He'd made her favorite foods- Jalapeno poppers, macaroni and cheese, and apple pie. There was chilled Cream Soda in the fridge- their preferred alcohol-equivalent. And he'd cleaned the whole house, scrubbing, sweeping, mopping...

He heard her come up the stairs and he flicked the overhead lights off, and with it being dark outside already because of the short winter days, the warm glow of the fairy-lights were all that lit the place. He had to admit- the effect was stunning.

Darcy opened the door, saying, "Loki, baby- I got the chocolates. Thank you so-" And then she noticed the lights. "Oh. My. God," she breathed, her eyes getting misty.

Putting her purse down, she walked over to him and kissed him. Leaning back, she tilted her head to the side."Is that apple pie?"

"Yeah, I know it's your favorite, so I made some."

Darcy's eyes got very soft and she had to blink back tears at that. He was just _so_ sweet.

Loki was a little bit nervous about the next part of his plan, but...oh god. He'd just do it. He didn't know what he was so afraid of, anyways.

He stared down at her, taking in just how lovely and incredible she was. Her hair pulled up in a ponytail, her eyes wide and soft, her lips red from kissing him-

"Darcy," he said, more serious than he'd ever been. "I love you. I appreciate you." He traced a finger along her jaw. "Happy Valentines day."

Darcy's mouth fell open, and she tried to respond but couldn't find whole sentences at first.

"I-you-oh my god, you-I can't-" She blinked hard. "You are the most _amazing_ man, Loki Laufeyson. I can't even. I mean, you are just...you're just...I love you too."

His heart felt so full at that moment. Everything in the world was perfect. He'd been planning on waiting a _bit _longer before they ended up having sex, and he'd thought maybe they'd start in the bed, but no, the wall was just as good a place as any, he decided as they put it to use...

* * *

Lying in bed a couple hours later, Darcy lay with her head on his chest, one leg draped over his.

"I have a request," she said.

"What?"

"You know that book I've been reading?"

"Yes," Loki chuckled. "You're a very loud reader."

"Well I can't help it!" Darcy cried exasperatedly. "If things are cute I'm gonna say 'aww' and if they're strange then I'm gonna be like 'well wtf is going on oh Jesus Christ,' and if things are sad then I'm gonna start crying...But anyways. Can you read it to me? Your voice is just sooo good, and I'd reeeeally like it..."

Loki shook his head at what he was about to do, but held out a hand for the book.

"Oh yay!" Darcy said with excitement, grabbing it from the nightstand. "Thank you, Loki!"

Loki opened Fifty Shades of Grey to the bookmarked page and began reading.

He stopped two minutes later to stare at Darcy, who was giggling uncontrollably.

"Are you even paying attention?" he asked.

"I-oh my god- I- YES I'm paying attention, I just can't-" and she started giggling again.

"It's a very interesting book," Loki remarked.

"Mmhmm," Darcy managed through her laughter.

"And it gives me a few ideas," he said, a smile curving his lips. He'd read less than a page and it was already the most ridiculous thing he'd ever read.

Darcy's mouth fell open. "_Really?_"

"Yes," he said, and showed her.

* * *

They did eventually eat their food, but it was much later, and much less clothed than originally planned.


	16. Chapter 16

_**A/N:** Couple things. So, I don't actually know much about set designing or how in-demand it is. It's probably pretty farfetch'd that a set-designer would be hired from overseas rather than just finding on on their own side of the pond, but...pretend it's not. Thanks =P_

_Also, this chapter coincides with chapter four of my Thor/Jane fic, fyi, and there's a little more detail about the actual conversations that go on in it. It just felt unnecessary for this fic, because this is for Darcy and Loki._

_Also also, I've taken a bit of liberty with Thor's personality. He's much less...jovial, I suppose. =P_

* * *

"Bah," Darcy grumbled to herself a few months later, as she poked at what would hopefully turn out to be a delicious ham. It wasn't cooked all the way yet. And people would be here soon! Well, people...really just Loki's brother Thor. And, weirdly, Jane. "How did this even happen!" She lamented to herself for the hundredth time in a week.

It was Easter, a holiday that had previously always been spent with her parents, but they'd decided to go on a cruise out of the blue and so they were currently off sunning themselves in the Bahamas- "While I work my fingers to the bone to try and feed some hungry barbarians, and all the while- Jesus looks on, ascending from his cave up to the heavens, and not once does he stop and come help me cook. Die for my sins, fine. But come back to life to reward me when I do good. Please." She shook her head in confusion at herself. "Wow. I'm glad no one else is here, because that would probably have offended a lot of people."

She wasn't really religious, and she didn't mean it either- she was just stressed and taking solace in being flippant and overly woeful. She'd never hosted _any_ kind of gathering, let alone _Easter_, which- to her mind- was this big, scary, important meal- though she couldn't honestly say what made it so daunting. It had never been a huge deal when it had been with just her family.

Part of it probably had to do with wanting to impress Loki's older -unrelated, which was interesting- brother. From what she'd heard of Thor from Loki, he was quite the stereotypical 'strong, silent type'. They'd gotten along well as children, but didn't really know each other as adults. They'd been estranged for years over the revelation of Loki's adoptedness- Loki having admitted that the estrangement had been initiated by himself, which soften Darcy a little to Thor- but they'd gotten back into contact with each other last November. Thor had been a pretty big-time professional rugby player back in England before retiring last year and moving to Boston to spend more time with Loki. The problem was, he'd gotten a job as a carpenter at a set-designer company that made props for movies- a bizarre change of professions, Darcy thought- and had been called away almost immediately to a set that was being filmed overseas. Go figure. Darcy didn't know much about set-designing, but apparently the company Thor worked for was pretty highly in demand. He was only just getting back today, and Loki was picking him up at the airport at the moment.

Jane, on the other hand... Jane had heard from somewhere that Darcy was now in Boston, and having been transferred for some special project to the Boston branch of her research firm, she'd called Darcy up. Darcy had just felt so grateful and had been so happy with Loki that she'd spontaneously invited her for Easter. If it hadn't been for Jane, then Darcy never would have met Loki, and that would have been...tragic.

So Jane was coming, too. She was set to arrive for 5:30. It was now 5:00. The ham was...less than appetizing. Darcy pursed her lips speculatively at it. Oh well. She gave a sigh of acceptance, thankful that the rest of the meal was ready.

Loki had helped out a lot, earlier. Well, okay. So he'd really done most of it. But she'd chopped the vegetables for the salad and she'd stirred things. In addition to the salad, there was mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, artichoke quiche, and bread rolls. Darcy surveyed the spread on the table with satisfaction. They'd even bought two more chairs for the event.

The door opened.

"Hey honey," Loki called wryly, "I'm home. This is my brother, Thor."

A hulking man walked behind him. Her first impression was that this was a man who could be very intimidating. He was huge. Probably six and a half feet tall, with blond waving hair in an unusual cut at his shoulders. The planes of his face were harsh and strong, though not unappealing. Seeing him standing next to Loki, the differences were stark. There was no way these two would ever be mistaken for brothers. In contrast to Thor's muscled torso and physique, Loki looked almost slender- which she knew to be wrong. Loki had muscles of his own, but Thor's _muscles_ had muscles.

"Hello, Thor," Darcy said, crossing over to them, almost feeling shy. "Happy Easter. I'm...Darcy." She finished, feeling a bit silly because surely he already knew her name. Loki must have said something about her at some point.

"Hello, Darcy," Thor said, and Darcy started. There was something really familiar about him...

"Oh my _God_!" She exclaimed, her eyes wide. "Wait. I've _met_ you before."

"_What?"_ Loki asked, extremely confused.

"At the bar, back in New Mexico."

Thor nodded. "Indeed."

"You broke my phone."

"Ah, yes," he said. "I'm still sorry about that."

He did look a little ashamed. Darcy noted with amusement how strange it was to see a look of regret on such a serious- almost cold- man's face. Seriously, his face was like stone. No laugh lines. No humor in his eyes. Darcy had gotten used to the laughter that glinted in Loki's eyes, the way he was so quick to smile. They found humor in everything- but this man...no. She wondered what it would take to see this man smile. To hear him laugh.

"Don't worry about it," she said, echoing her statement from months before. "I just find it so weird that I'm seeing you again."

Loki looked back and forth between the two of them, his brows drawn. "Wait- what? Explain. _You_ broke Darcy's phone?"

So they explained the story to him, Darcy finding it much more entertaining telling it than it had been living it. It still made her sad, thinking of those months without him.

They had moved to the kitchen and were boiling water, having fallen into a conversation about where phrases originate from after Darcy had made some comment to Loki about "Never drinking your black tea again, not for all the tea in china!", when there was a soft knock at the door. Darcy grinned, glad to leave the conversation at a point where she had been winning.

She opened the door, and there was Jane.

"Jane!" she cried, hugging her tightly, surprised by how happy she was to see her. They'd never exactly been friends- Jane had even driven her crazy at times- but she'd always liked her. And 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' and all that.

"Darcy!" Jane returned, seeming a little surprised herself.

Pulling back, Darcy took in the gorgeous calico red cotton dress Jane was wearing, and the way her dark hair fell in perfect waves framing her face. Darcy herself was wearing a green tank top and a floral blue skirt that fell to her knees and swished amusingly when she walked. Jane looked exactly the same. Instead of being annoyed by her perfectness though, Darcy was just happy to see her.

"Come on in then, darling," Darcy said, adopting a sophisticated British accent.

Jane smiled. "Well, thank you kindly, purdy lil lady," she returned in a southern twang.

Delighted, Darcy led her into the kitchen. "We've just been getting water boiled for tea," she said. "Would you care for some?"

"Hmm?" Jane said, distracted by something as Darcy sailed past Thor, who had his back to them as he talked to Loki. "Oh, no thanks."

Thor turned at the sound of her voice. He stared.

"Oh, jeez!" Darcy said a moment later, slapping her forehead lightly. "Of course- introductions. Jane, you and Loki know each other," they smiled at each other. "And this is Loki's brother, Thor. Thor this is my...ex-boss/friend."

Thor kept staring at Jane. _Sheesh_, Darcy thought. _Be a little less obvious there, big guy._

Jane smiled warmly at him, almost as if she knew him..._What is going _on_ here! _Darcy wondered.

"Hello," Jane said, something different about her voice. Almost...more cheerful, which Darcy dismissed as a fancy.

Thor held out his hand, his eyes still staring at Jane's. "Hello."

Darcy waited for him to say more- they all waited for him to say more- but no. Apparently he was done. _Wow. A man of _very_ few words._

The kettle started shrilling, which made Darcy flinch and rush over to it, breaking the ice a bit. Lokie and Thor had somehow gotten onto the subject of Smart cars, and Jane looked comfortable with it. Thor told a story about being stuck behind an angry, racist old woman who had hurled insults at him while driving one when he'd been in Italy. She had relaxed and even joked back and forth with Darcy, which Darcy had loved. She had noted with interest how Jane would laugh and something like satisfaction would flash in Thor's eyes every time.

* * *

That night after Thor and Jane had left- Thor having walked Jane out to her car- Loki and Darcy lay in bed talking.

"Well, Thor certainly seems smitten," Darcy commented, trailing a finger absently over Loki's chest.

Loki's eyes widened comically, making Darcy laugh.

"He _does_," Loki said, seeming stunned that such a thing was possible. "I mean, I haven't seen him in about ten years, but...I don't think he's ever been in a serious relationship before. He's, like, the king of flings."

"Yeah, that's kind of what I got, too," Darcy agreed.

"But he kept _looking_ at Jane," Loki said, still having a hard time believing it. "He was really _looking_ at her, Darce. And not just her- well, you know-" Darcy flicked his chest with her finger and he smiled, rolling his eyes. "What I mean is, he was _looking_ at her like she was a person. Like he wanted her to be happy, and laugh, and..."

"Like you look at me," Darcy said, grinning up at him.

Loki grinned back, kissing her forehead. His heart was full.

"Yes," he echoed. "Like I look at you."


	17. Chapter 17

_August_

"_Oh my God, Loki_," Darcy screeched, storming up the stairs. "I do _not_ want to talk to you right now."

She'd stayed silent through the tense car ride back, but couldn't keep it in anymore when he'd breached the silence as they got home.

"You had _no right_ to do that," she seethed, ignoring the fact that she'd just said she didn't want to talk to him.

"_No right_?" he echoed angrily. "_No right_? That man was moments away from kissing you! He was dancing almost on _top_ of you! I had _every_ right," he said fiercely.

Darcy turned the key in the lock jerkily and sailed through the door. "He was _not_ going to kiss me! And he wasn't dancing _on_ me, he was just dancing, well, kind of close, but...well, okay, so in hindsight I probably should have just moved further away," she admitted reluctantly.

Loki threw his hands up. "Thank you," he said, as if she'd just proved his point. Darcy's eyes flashed angrily at that.

"Be that as it may, it was entirely uncalled for for you to _punch him in the face. _You could have broken his nose, Loki."

"I wish I had."

"Well, that's just great," Darcy said, her anger draining behind and leaving her feeling like she wanted to cry. Her period was probably coming soon, she'd been so moody. "I've got a bloodthirsty boyfriend. But it was so nice, to be escorted out of the club. Really, Loki," she said, blinking back tears and biting down on sarcasm. "It was just an amazing experience."

Loki sighed in frustration. His adrenalin was still pumping like crazy from being so angry, but Darcy was about to cry and he couldn't handle that. Honestly, he wasn't sure why he had gotten so pissed. The man had been far more familiar than he had any right to be, but still, it was a club... It was just that when he'd come back from getting them some water only to see another man practically grinding against Darcy, his head close enough to kiss her- not to mention that the man had given him this _smirk_...the _audacity_ of him... Well, so he'd snapped and punched the man's nose.

"Look," he strove for a more reasonable tone, trying to dampen his frustration. "I don't know what you expect from me."

"For you not to go around assaulting people, Loki!" Darcy cried, gesturing her hands wildly. "God _damn_ it."

"Well, what would you rather I have done?" he asked. "Just let him keep humping you?" Darcy made a face at his choice of words. "Because I'm sorry, Darcy, but I don't like to see other men being that close to you."

"I don't know, Loki," she said, blinking back tears. "I don't_ know _what you should have done. I don't just know everything, okay?" She sniffed, a tear running down one cheek.

Loki reached toward her, as if to wipe it off, his heart clenching painfully. He never could stand to see Darcy cry. But she shook her head sadly and walked away, into their bedroom. He wanted to follow her, but got the sense that she could use a little time to herself. So instead, he walked to the kitchen and made two mugs of tea, trying to collect his thoughts. They'd fought before, but only over small things. It had never really _felt_ like a fight before. But this did.

When he took the tea into their bedroom fifteen minutes later, Darcy was dressed in her pajamas and was reading in bed. Well...'reading'. She was looking at a book, but her eyes weren't moving over the pages. Her face was still drawn and she looked sad.

"Truce?" he asked softly, holding out a mug of tea the way she liked it.

She looked up miserably, but smiled slightly at the tea. She took the cup, putting the book down. "Okay," she said, her voice small.

It was very confusing for Loki. He wasn't used to Darcy acting like this. She was certainly quick to jump from emotion to emotion, but she was hardly ever _sad_.

"I'm sorry I punched that man," he said. It was true. While it had been satisfying at the time, looking back, it hadn't been his shining moment.

"No, it's okay. I'm not sure...I don't know why I was so upset. I mean, I'm not _glad_ that you punched him, but...it's not like he was entirely innocent or something." Not sure what to do with that, Loki just waited. Sure enough, Darcy continued after a moment of thought. "I think it might have had to do with me being more...hormonal, than usual," she said. Oh.

Smiling slightly, he joked, "Well, maybe we should just stay away from clubs from now on. No more dancing. We'll become strict un-funitariasts."

Darcy gave him a look, but she smiled. "That's not a word. And I want my dancing! But maybe take a break for a little while. Focus on getting you trained as a professional boyfriend."

"Oh really," Loki asked, relieved that they'd moved back into familiar territory. He waggled his eyebrows. "And just how do you propose to go about training me?"

Darcy giggled, snuggling against his chest and trailing light fingers down his body. "Oh, I don't know," she said. "I've got a few ideas..."

* * *

**_A/N:_** _lol, just realizing how much they have sex. Sheesh. =P_


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N:**_ I forget exactly how old, or even if I said at all, Darcy was supposed to be and I can't find it in my fic at the moment, so for now at least, I am claiming her to be twenty-four. =P_

* * *

At first Darcy had chalked the morning sickness and the general feeling of being not-quite-rightness up to a cold, it having been a bizarre August, weather-wise. But then her period didn't come. And the smell of coffee started making her nauseous. Plus the fact that they hadn't been that cautious...and, well, things started adding up. A few hastily bought pregnany tests confirmed it. She was pregnant.

"Oh my god," she whispered to herself as she sank into the couch, stunned. She'd been half-expecting it, but it still hit her like a ton of bricks. Her? Darcy? Be a mother? Could she even do that? Was she ready? Did Loki even _want_ kids? They hadn't really talked about it... Darcy liked the _idea_ of kids, but to have them right _now_? She had estimated that she would be about two months pregnant by now. So now all of a sudden she could be pushing another human being out of her vagina in seven moths.

Darcy lost track of the passing time, just sitting on the couch, her mind whirling with this new information. Loki was working until six for the most part during the summer months, when he didn't have a slew of advanced physics classes to teach at MIT. He'd been putting hours in at the lab instead, putting that big brain of his to work for research.

At some point Loki came home, the sound of keys in the door jolting Darcy from her thoughts. "Hey babe," he said cheerfully, putting his keys on the hook by the door. Darcy looked over to him, and he immediately grew concerned. She looked very serious and scared.

"Darce?" He aked, getting a bit freaked by the way she was behaving. "Babe, what's wrong?"

Darcy swallowed. "Loki...I'm pregnant."

Oh. _Oh_. Right. Well, that actually made a lot of sense, thinking back over the last couple months. The idea of Darcy with a baby- with _his_ baby...well. He liked it. He could just picture the kind of mom she would be, playing games with their child, and making up outlandish stories. He smiled at the thought.

"Darcy- that's amazing news," he said, sensing that she was looking to his reaction to better figure out her own reaction.

Darcy smiled tentatively. "Yeah? Do you really think so? Because I don't know, like, _anything_ about taking care of babies and I don't want to mess this kid up, but- I..._want_ it." She frowned, realizing just how deep that want was. Where a couple hours ago she'd hardly had a second thought about kids, there was now this sharp _ache_ for her very own baby Loki. "I _really_ want it."

Loki took a spot next to her on the couch and pulled her against his chest. Darcy snuggled in. He kissed her forehead.

"We're going to be parents," he said after a while. The thought delighted him. But it also made him realize how little he knew about kids, which led to a mild internal freak out that moments later was calmed by the rational part of his brain reminding him that this was why there were so many books on childcare and such. Because people wanted to be prepared for their babies. He sent a silent thanks to all the authors who had made those books available to expectant parents. Grinning at the incredible absurdity of that, he stroked Darcy's hair. He hoped they had a girl, with Darcy's brown hair and her blue eyes, her sense of humor...

Darcy was on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. First had been the confusion when her period hadn't come- the niggling little suspicion, then the panic. That _oh shit what have I done_ feeling. The uncertainty of how Loki would react, and then his immediate acceptance and delight- both of which had reassured Darcy to no end. She didn't know what she would have done if he hadn't been pleased. It would have been horrible! She'd never considered not keeping it though. Even if Loki had wanted no part in it's life and they'd broken up, she would have kept the baby. Darcy smiled slightly. Of course she would go twenty-four years of her life not really caring one way or the other for babies only to beome super-protective and in-love with her own baby an hour after finding out she was even pregnant. Because that was just how she rolled.

Right then, curled up with Loki, Darcy was completely at peace with the idea of being a mother. Sure, she knew next to nothing about kids or what raising one entailed, but they could totally pwn this whole parents thing together.

"Oh god, though," she said, wincing at a sudden thought. "Loki. Do you realize?"

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Realize...?"

"This kid's going to grow up."

Loki smiled. "Yes. Kid's tend to do that."

"No. Loki. You don't understand. Eventually they're going to be a..._teenager_."

Loki gasped. He widened his eyes dramatically. "No! Not a teenager! Oh god, get the salt!"

Darcy chuckled, rolling her eyes. "Oh you. You and your Supernatural references. I still don't know how you're so into that show."

"Woman!" Loki cried, this being an old argument. "You need to get to the fourth season! Then all becomes clear." Darcy shook her head, smiling. She shipped Destiel, of course- how could anyone not when they'd seen all the gifs of Dean and Castiel being flaming homosexuals?- but she just couldn't get into it. Too boring. "Speaking of the supernatural," Loki continued, "We could always try to find a vampire. Get it to turn our kid before they get to their teens. Then you wouldn't have to deal with a teenager."

Darcy shook her head. "Naw. I can already tell. I'm gonna want grandkids."

Loki grinned. "Grandkids." He let out a deep breath. "Wow.I feel _really_ old."

"Well," Darcy laughed, "you _are_ twenty-eight. That's pretty old..."

Loki made a face at her. "Psssh." He smiled crookedly. "Well...at least I'm pretty. That's a slight consolation."

Darcy coughed. "Shyeah," she grumbled. "Pretty _sexy_."

Raising an eyebrow, Loki asked, "Flattery, Ms. Lewis? What do you want to buy with it _this_ time? Here I've already given you a baby. What more could I possibly give you?"

"How about some orgasms." She rolled from his side to being on top of him, her hands weaving through his hair. She kissed his collarbone.

"What about my brain? I'll start to think you just want my body, Ms. Lewis." Loki's own hands stole around to her lower back.

"Your brain can shove it," Darcy declared, kissing her way up his neck. "I _do_ just want you for your body."

Loki hissed in a mocking breath. "Ooh. My lady doth wound me with her cruel words." He kissed her. "She knows not how deep her words cut. But she is my lady, she is my love...I will endure this sweet agony, for she is worth the pain and the-"

Darcy laughed against his lips. "Oh my god, Loki," she said. "I do so love you."

"And I you, my darling." They grinned at each other.

"We're gonna be kick-ass parents," Darcy said.

"We're totally gonna rock," Loki agreed. "We're gonna rock it out of the park. We're gonna knock their socks off. We're gonna-"

"Put their socks back on so their feet don't get too cold. Babies need to be warm, yeah?"

"Yeah," Loki nodded. "We're gonna keep them so warm-"

"But not too warm."

"-Right. Well, obviously. Not _too_ warm."

"Because babies shouldn't be overheated."

"No," Loki agreed. "They shouldn't be overheated-"

"So we'll have to find the perfect temperature of warmth for them. It'll be a struggle." Darcy giggled, liking this game of interrupting Loki. "We should probably just call them Luke. Then they could always be lukewarm, which is probably just about right."

"Well, but what if they're a girl?"

Darcy thought about it. "No," she said. "We'd have to have a boy. Because otherwise it wouldn't work. You see?"

Grinning, Loki rolled his eyes. "Yes, I see."

"Good. Now enough baby talk! We've got seven months for that." Darcy ran her hands over his chest, loving how hard he was. "Sex me! I want sexytimes!"

Loki loved how direct Darcy could be. She was certainly a handful. He gripped her ass, pulling her tighter against him and kissed her deeply. A wonderful handful.

* * *

**A/N:**_ Ahaha. More sex. Lord. I don't know why guys, it just keeps happening._

_Also, I start more things than I should. I've gotten pretty obsessed with writing another Darcy/Loki fic, so I probably won't update this one for a while. Sorry! You guys are awesome =P_


	19. Chapter 19

**_A/N:_**_ Sorry about the long break, guys. I finished the other Darcy/Loki story I was working on though, and found the inspiration to finish this one- so I should be updating pretty regularly until then. There will be a sequel. As always, you guys are the shiniest fanfic readers in the 'verse. 3_

* * *

Darcy had been reading up on symptoms of each trimester of pregnancy, trying to get as much information as she could about what to expect- never having known anyone in her adult life who'd had a baby- and was surprised by how easy her first two months had been. She hadn't even started having morning sickness until the end of the two months, and her aversions to certain things like cigarette smoke and seafood had been there before, so she hadn't really thought much of it. Though she had been craving watermelon and mushrooms pretty bad, which was unusual for her.

It was the mood swings of the first trimester that she'd really picked up. One moment she was laughing, and the next she was crying. It was exhausting, the constant shift from extreme emotion to extreme emotion. By the third month though, it had luckily evened out a bit and she'd been able to get through a whole day sometimes without tearing up at something.

Poor Loki. He'd been wonderfully supportive about the whole thing, but he just looked so out of his depth the first few times she'd burst into tears after hearing a joke. He'd gotten the hang of bringing her out of it though, and was a pro by the time that period had passed. She'd never felt more lucky to have him than she had then, when she'd been a blubbering, gross mess and he'd just talked her through it or distracted her- generally just being his sweet, amazing self.

* * *

Loki played with the small, red velvet box in his hand as he sat at the table waiting for Darcy to come back from the bathroom. They'd gone out to dinner to celebrate the fact that they were going to be parents, and Loki had decided to propose here, amid the soft candlelight of the Italian restaurant. He'd bought the ring before he'd even found out that she was pregnant, and had just been waiting for the right moment.

Loki wasn't sure why he was so nervous- it wasn't like he thought she'd say no. He figured probably everyone felt nervous when they asked someone essentially to be with them for the rest of their lives.

Darcy came back, making a face. "This baby is a real control freak," she said. "It's always telling me what to eat and when to pee. Sheesh."

Loki rolled his eyes at this, smoothly slipping the box into his pocket again. Not yet.

"I'm telling you," Darcy continued, "It's going to need to learn to compromise, because I don't want to became just a shadow of myself under it's tyranical demands."

"Maybe we should just name it Napoleon," Loki suggested.

Darcy gasped. "No! I know we haven't really talked about baby names yet, but I've already decided. There's only one name this baby could have."

Loki smiled, knowing she wasn't being serious. "And what's that?"

Darcy grinned at him playfully. "Why, Rory, of course. Because of reasons."

Shaking his head, Loki chuckled. "The way you love Rory Williams, should I be worried?"

The smell of garlic bread and lasagna preceded their waiter as he set Darcy and Loki's food on the table.

"Oh my god," Darcy said, inhaling deeply. "Yeah. That's the stuff. And no- of course not! I have a deep, abiding love for Rory, but you're _real_. You're _mine_. And anyways, Rory's what- like 2,000 years old? Talk about cradle robbing." She made a face. "Ooooooh, _god_. Whyyyy do I think of things like that? Because I'd be the baby in that scenario. And I'm giving birth. A baby giving birth. Lokiiiiii- distract me! I don't like that thought!"

This was not the first time he'd been asked to distract her from a strange thought that she didn't like, so he knew what to do.

"Dinosaurs," he said, and she bit her lip and whined. Somehow, months ago, the topic of dinosaurs had come up and it was discovered that Darcy had incredibly strange mixed feelings about them that Loki didn't exactly share but found amusing. She was very invested in her feelings though, and in figuring out what she actually _felt_, so something like this would typically become a fixation for her.

"They're so _cool_," she said, sighing and twirling spaghetti on her fork. "Like, Loki, they actually _existed. _On_ Earth. _With their scales and their talons and teeth and weird shapes and everything. There was probably at some point even a dinosaur walking around right where this restaraunt is now. Like- whaaaa? _How_?"

Loki grinned and took a sip of wine. "Indeed."

"But," she said, "Then at the same time they're terrifying, of course. Or actually, some of the ones that had wings you might be able to say were terri_flying_. Eh? Yeah?" Darcy grinned. She loved her puns.

Loki shook his head, smiling. She was such a weirdo, which was probably why he loved her so much.

"What _do_ you want to call the baby, though?" Loki asked a few minutes later. They had decided not to find out the sex of the baby in advance, but he figured they should probably toss some names around.

"I hadn't actually really thought about it," Darcy said, frowning and tilting her head to the side. "Huh. Well, did you have any names in mind?"

"I was thinking Mildred, if it's a girl. And maybe Darwin if it's a boy."

Darcy smiled painfully and Loki laughed.

"No," he assured her, "Just kidding, just kidding."

"Oh thank god," Darcy said, sighing in relief. "I don't like to say no to you, but...my baby is not going to have a name that an old person would have. Because kids are cruel! I don't want to give them more ammunition to make fun of this baby with. God knows it'll probably be weird enough just having our genes. Can you imagine the field trip some bully could have with a name like Darwin? 'Oh, you want to play...dodgeball?'" Darcy said, imitating the supposed bully, "'Well, why don't you go back to the old folks home and try to dodge death.' Oh my _God_," Darcy said, her eyes wide. "I could have been a hella mean bully if I wasn't so nice."

"That was pretty impressive," Loki said, his eyebrows raised. "So, I guess-"

"Wait," Darcy said. "I'm not done. 'Oh, you're name's Darwin? What are you, an animal...finder? Like Noah. Two by two. Well what about love triangles!'" Darcy smiled and looked expectantly at Loki. "Praise me?" She asked. "That was pretty good."

Loki chuckled. "Yes, that was pretty good. Well done."

Darcy sighed happily. "Wow. Praise feels really nice. And you're a really sincere praise-giver," she said.

"Thanks," he said wryly.

"Do you see what I did there?" she asked. "I turned the tables on you. I gave _you_ praise. How does it feel?"

Loki propped his elbow on the table and and rested his head against his hand.

"It feels incredible," he said.

"The Incredibles," she said, delighted.

"It feels amazing."

"The Amazing Spiderman."

"It feels wonderful."

"Alice in Wonderland."

Loki hissed in a breath. "Ummm, I don't know about that one. That might be a little too far from off base."

Sometimes they slipped into a game- he had no idea when or why it had started, but it was ongoing- where one of them would say an adjective and the other would think of a movie, or book, or some pop-culture reference that incorporated that word.

How boring other people's relationships must be, Loki thought, if they didn't play the little games that he and Darcy did.

"Whaaa? It is so on base! That target was like a bull's eye!" Darcy was always indignant about her choices. She loved winning.

Loki just shook his head. "Let's put it this way: that was, in no way, a shot made by Katniss."

"Well, mister high and mighty, what would _you_ have done? If you're so clever then you figure one out."

"But it wasn't my turn," he smirked. "So I think I'll just save mine for when it is."

"But Loki!" Darcy cried, her eyes wide. "If you love me, you'll let me get away with it." She batted her puppydog eyes at him adorably.

Loki just laughed and shook his head. "I think _because_ I love you, I shouldn't let you get away with stuff like that."

Darcy made a face at him and then smiled brightly. "Okay, coolzies."

And that was one of the things that he loved so much about her. She was competitive as all hell, but in the end, she wasn'treally that concerned about losing.

* * *

"Speaking of cool things," Loki said, rubbing the back of his neck and raising his brows in that way that Darcy loved that made him look so sexily adorable. He laughed. "And of seguays..." He took a small velvet box out of his pocket and Darcy's mouth fell open as she beamed at him. _Oh my _god_, _she thought. He got down on his knee before her. "Darcy Lewis, you are the peanut butter to my jelly. You are the cream cheese to my bagel. You are the apple of my eye-"

Darcy laughed even as she was starting to tear up. "You're food metaphors are getting weirder," she whispered to him conspiratorially. She sniffed.

"I know," he whispered back. "But don't worry, I'm working up to a big question."

"Okay," Darcy grinned, a few tears tracking down her cheek. Still whispering, she said, "And just so you know, I'm going to say yes."

Loki smiled at her tenderly, and wiped the tears from her eyes. In a soft voice, he asked, "Darcy Lewis, will you do me the incredible honor...of being my wife?"

Starting to _actually_ cry now, she sniffed. "Yes!" she said, nodding. "Mmhmm. Yeah. Mrs. Darcy Laufeyson," she sighed happily.

Loki winced. "I do apologize," he said. "That sounds a little-"

She glared at him and he stopped mid-sentence, realizing that it would be wiser not to finish that thought. Darcy _loved_ the way that sounded. Mrs. Darcy Laufeyson. "It's _perfect,"_ she said, perhaps a bit confrontationally.

Loki smiled, holding up his hand. "I meant no offense, my lady," he said. "I'm glad you like it."

Darcy beamed happily. "The ring!" She said. "I want to see the ring!"

Loki flushed slightly, having forgotten to open the box. He did so.

"Ooooh," Darcy said, surprised and pleased by what she saw. She picked it up.

* * *

Loki watched with nervousness as she examined the ring. Darcy wasn't really the type to wear jewelery much, and he didn't think she'd really go in for the traditional diamond ring. It felt a little too ostentatious for what Darcy liked. And he knew for a fact that she hated gold, as they'd had a discussion about it before. So he'd settled on a plain, white-gold wedding band. But he hadn't wanted it to be _quite_ so lacking in weight- after all, it was a _wedding_ ring- so he'd had it inscribed. In green script along the inside it read: _My other half_. That was how he felt- that she was a part of him. She completed him. But now she wasn't saying anything and he started to have doubts about that inscription. It was such a little thing, and yet now he felt like a fool...

"Sorry about the inscription," he said self-consciously. "That was a little over the top, yeah? I can bring it back, I'm sure, and they can-"

Darcy gasped. "Don't you dare change a thing!" She cried, her eyes swimming once more. "I love it. It's so..." She sniffed. "So _right_. I feel the same way about you."

Loki sighed quietly with relief. Thank _god_.

"But what about yours?" Darcy asked. "Does your ring have an inscription?"

Loki shook his head, taking it out of his pocket. It was just a plain band- the same as hers, minus the inscription.

Darcy frowned. "Well. That's not okay with me." She patted his shoulder. "Don't worry," she said. "I'll fix it for you."

Loki gave her the ring, intrigued.


	20. Chapter 20

There was literally no preparation for the wedding beyond Darcy picking out a beautiful, and beautifully cheap, ivory satin wedding dress. Not that it had to be cheap. Loki was apparently quite rich and had said that she shouldn't worry about that kind of thing. But old habits died hard, and she didn't really want to start off married life by using his money. It was _their_ money now, he argued, but she was adamant.

Jane and Darcy had been hanging out quite a lot lately. Ever since Easter, and with Jane being new in the city- not that Darcy had been there that long either, but she knew a lot more than Jane- they'd started going out for girls' nights. Or if one of them had to go shopping and the other one was free, they'd generally tag along. It was nice. And Jane was very different from what Darcy remembered. She didn't know if it was Jane who'd changed, or herself, or a combination of the two, but being with Jane was easy. Darcy felt like she could be herself, which was a rare thing, because people tended to look at her strangely sometimes when she wasn't paying attention to how _much _herself she was being. But Jane would just smile and roll her eyes to show that Darcy was being weird but that Jane liked it.

From hanging out with Jane, it came up that she was apparently going out with Thor, which both amused and delighted Darcy. She fancied herself to be a bit of a matchmaker after that, and delighted Jane to no end with the elaborate imagined future love-affairs of two people they'd seen in the park or at the supermarket.

Naturally, Darcy and Loki asked Thor and Jane to be the witnesses necessary for when they got married. The two accepted.

* * *

Loki had found a small chapel nearby, and looked into booking them, which was fine with Darcy. She had never really been one of those girls who dreams about getting married as a child, and so has it all figured out the way she wants her wedding to be. She'd been off getting into trouble with Katie and Katie's brothers- playing pirates, or big games of tag with the neighborhood kids. Or else she'd been holed up in her room reading, or watching movies. Boys just hadn't really concerned her for a while, and by the time they did, she had few illusions about the typical men her age.

They had toyed with the idea of inviting Darcy's parents up for the wedding, but they were- ridiculously!- off on another cruise, so it was decided that Loki would take a few vacation days and they would go down to visit them at the end of September- about two weeks from then. Darcy was quite looking forward to it. She missed them, no matter how long she was away for, and she was eager to hear any advice her mother might have on childbirth.

Loki had outright refused to call his parents at all. Darcy was astounded by this, but he was adamant. He just didn't want them in his life at this point, he said. That he'd think about it later, but wasn't ready yet. Reconnecting with Thor would be just the first step at reconnecting with his family, Darcy had thought, but apparently not so. She tried to change his mind, but couldn't. So she had, reluctantly, let it be.

Despite that, Darcy was rather more excited for her wedding than she would have thought she'd be. Although, that could be in part because on the rare occasion she'd thought of what it would be like to get married, she hadn't been able to picture that she'd be marrying a man like Loki. The closer it got to the wedding, the more excited she got- so that on the morning of it she was practically vibrating with energy, which amused Loki to no end. He called her a pretty little squirrel on caffeine, and she made a face at him and kicked him out of the house to get ready at Thor's so she and Jane could have the house. They were arriving at the chapel seperatly, to preserve a little of the old tradition of not seeing the bride until she was coming down the aisle. Thor had actually agreed, somewhat bemusedly, to play the role of father and walk her down.

"Are you nervous?" Jane asked as they stood in front of the bathroom mirrors doing their make-up. Darcy didn't usually do much, but thought that for a special occasion like this, she's put in a bit more effort than usual. Nothing too dramatic- just a bit of eyeliner and lipstick. Still, she was pleased with the effect.

"Nervous?" Darcy repeated, examining her lips and then adjusting the line of the lipstick. "Not really _nervous_. Mostly just excited, and happy. I can't wait to start my life with him! I feel like everything's going to feel different when we're married. In a good kind of way."

Jane smiled, applying a subtle touch of eyeshadow expertly. "It's funny you would say that," she said. "Because I would have thought that you'd just go on as you'd been doing before." She shrugged. "But maybe that was just me."

Darcy looked at her, confused. "Wait. What? What do you mean 'maybe that was just me'?"

Jane fiddled uncomfortably with her make-up bag. "Oh, well. You know. When I was married, I mean."

Darcy was shocked, to say the least. Her mouth dropped and her eyebrows rose. "Dude!" she said, her eyes wide. "We've been friends for months and you don't tell me you're married? Wait." Her brows furrowed. "_Were_ married? Because I'm confused. You're dating Thor."

Jane smiled faintly. "I'm divorced now," she said. "It didn't last long. And I'm sorry I didn't tell you. It's just not the kind of thing that comes into the conversation very frequently. It wasn't purposely held back. I just wasn't really thinking about it." She smiled brightly then and stopped fiddling with the make-up bag. "But this is _your_ day! " She clapped her hands together. "And just look at you! You look stunning, of course."

Darcy rolled her eyes but smiled, pleased. Jane was very liberal with her compliments, and yet she always meant them. It had become something of a joke between them, when Jane said something incredibly positive and inane and then caught herself. One time she'd been practically rhapsodizing about Darcy's choice of breakfast, and it had just hit them both how ridiculous and funny it was. They'd busted out laughing and it had been a while before they'd calmed.

"But of course," Darcy said waggling her eyebrows in a provocative manner. Jane shook her head at her, and Darcy laughed. "I know modesty is supposed to be becoming, but I can't help it! I don't know though, I kind of think my confidence is darling."

Jane looked at her with amusement. "Darling? _Really_? _That's_ the word you're going to use?"

Darcy shrugged. "Hey man, if the potato tastes good then eat it."

Jane shook her head. "You should really be writing this stuff down. In a hundred years from now scholars are going to wonder what proverbs we had in our time, and they'll be missing some classic Darcy Wisdom."

"Hmm," Darcy said thoughtfully. "Maybe you're right. But I think a lot of my smartness comes from this dress. It's like my superhero costume- I put it on and all of a sudden I go from meek, mild-mannered Darcy to Super Mega-wise Owl-woman!"

"Oh Darcy," Jane said, snickering at the image of an owlified Darcy. "Don't ever change."

"Okay, but this dress is gonna get pretty dirty. I kind of think you're going to regret telling me to do that."

* * *

Thor and Loki had gone out for their own version of a 'bachelor's night' the previous evening, which had mostly consisted of the two of them trading ideas of what the future would be like. Because the girls were both featuring very heavily in their future, talk had turned to them.

"Jane is a nice girl," Loki had said, tempting Thor into speaking about his relationship. He'd quite liked Jane when he'd worked with her, and she seemed to be a good friend to Darcy now.

"Aye," Thor had said somberly, sipping a beer as they sat beside eachother at a Thor's favorite bar. It was a quiet night, and there was only one other patron, playing pool at the back. The click of the cue against the balls punctuated their words at odd times. "She is nice. But she is more than that," he had said, struggling to find the word. "She is...right."

Loki had nodded. "I think I know what you mean. I feel the same with Darcy. I can't imagine any other woman making me feel what I do for Darcy. But it surprised me that you feel like that for Jane. Not meaning any offense to Jane," he had said quickly, seeing Thor's brow lower at that. "Just that, in the past I've never known you to be like this over a woman."

Thor had nodded, accepting this. "It's true. But this woman," he'd given Loki a look of surprised happiness that Loki was sure he had never seen on his serious, womanizing brother's face. "It's almost as if I'veknown her my whole life. She makes me want what you have. Marriage, and a baby on the way...things that I never saw myself having."

Loki had smiled at that. "I never saw myself with them either," he'd confessed. "But I couldn't be more happy about how things have turned out."

Thor had looked at him, his face serious. "You are quite the inspiration, brother," he'd said.

Loki had raised his glass at that, surprised by this declaration from his elder brother. They'd clinked glasses and drank.

A few minutes Loki had checked his watch and saw that it was eleven. "I have to go," he'd said. "Darcy'll be expecting me back soon." It had amused him how domestic already he sounded. Thor must have had the same idea, because he was smiling slightly as well. "But I thank you for this," he said. "Truly. And I am glad that you will be there for my wedding tomorrow."

"I wouldn't miss it," Thor had said, raising his glass to his brother.

The gentle clack of the man playing pool had accompanied Loki as he went outside, back into the crisp, September night air, and back to the woman he loved. His heart had been full and he'd been filled with hope and excited for the future.

* * *

Now he was at Thor's apartment, growing increasingly more frustrated.

"This _bloody_ thing," he said, attempting to tie his bowtie for the millionth time. "It won't stay tied. And then when it does, it looks like something from a horror-shop."

Thor raised a brow sardonically. "Really, brother? I fear Darcy's madness may be catching."

"Can you help me?" Loki asked, frustrated and eying Thor's perfectly tied bowtie with jealousy. "How did you get yours so good?"

Thor shrugged, and took the strip of fabric in hand, smoothing out the wrinkled parts from Loki's attempts. Within two minutes, Loki stood, dapper in a crisp white dress shirt and navy dress pants, his black silk bowtie perfect.

Relaxing again, Loki thanked Thor. He was ready now, and he felt all his aggravation melting away to be replaced by a buzz of excitement. He was getting _married_ in a few hours. He grinned.

* * *

The priest was old and rail-thin with bleary eyes.

"Loki Laufeyson," the priest croaked. "Do you take this woman- Darcy Lewis- to be your bride? To care for in sickness and in health as long as you both shall live?"

"I do," Loki said, his words feeling powerful and heavy in the strange stillness of the chapel. He slipped the ring on her finger.

Darcy beamed, positively glowing as she briefly admired how the ring looked, shining merrily from her finger, before looking back at him.

"And do you, Darcy Lewis, take this man- Loki Laufeyson- to be your husband? To care for in sickness and in health as long as you both shall live?"

"I do," she chirped, her voice so much lighter and enthusiastic than Loki's.

Loki smiled at this example of how different they were. While he was sure Darcy took this event no less seriously than he, she approached it with enthusiasm and energy. Loki, on the other hand, felt like this was the last piece of the puzzle that he'd been working on for so long. Rather than enthusiasm, he felt a strong sense of relief and contentment. They were finally bonded together. They were having a baby. He could relax. For some reason, for as long as he could remember, he'd believed he had bad luck. A cloud had always seemed to be over his head, and he'd been haunted by the feeling that something wasn't _quite_ right. The feeling was quieted now, though. His luck had finally turned around.

She slid the ring onto his finger, but not before Loki saw what she'd had written inside it. He smiled, touched and amused at the same time. _This man is the property of Darcy Laufeyson_. He got the feeling that she would have preffered there to be more room for her to write something along the lines of: _if he gets lost, please return him to..._

"Then I now pronounce thee, man and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Darcy grinned at him and threw herself into his arms, causing Thor and Jane to chuckle from the pews just behind them. Loki caught her easily- she was prone to doing this and so he'd had much practice- and kissed her lightly.

"Really?" Darcy asked, pouting up at him. "That's it?"

Grinning, Loki kissed her forehead. "Until later."

"Later?" Darcy asked with interest. "What happens later?"

He whispered in her ear. Her eyes grew big and her mouth formed an 'o'. She swallowed loudly.

"I think," she said, "that we need to go. Home." She bit her lip, her eyes hungry. "Now."

He agreed. She was still in his arms, so he swept off down the aisle and out to the car, calling over his shoulder a brief, but sincere thanks to his brother and Jane for being there.


	21. Chapter 21

The new school semester had started by now, and so Loki was back to his regular teaching schedule- but it was with renewed energy that he returned. He'd found the inspiration to completely rework his whole curriculum, and added in new experiments, new projects- just made everything fresh. Somehow, the fact that Darcy was in his life and he was having a baby- it had reawakened him. He was looking at the world with new eyes. Where before he'd seen simply a lecture to be delivered in a straightforward fashion, now he saw an opportunity to blow his students minds. It was invigorating.

Darcy, on the other hand, was throwing herself into this whole learning-to-be-a-mom thing. She was devouring books on pregnancy, giving birth, raising children...Loki was quite impressed by it, especially knowing that she typically avoided non-fiction like the plague. She was so cute about it, too. They would be in bed reading together, and she'd come across something really interesting and share it with him, and ask him his opinion- did he think it would be a good idea for them to do this if their child did that? And so on...

She'd become very adamant about having a home-birth, too, after reading up on it. Loki was skeptical of it, but she was steadfast. She refused to give birth in a hospital- said she didn't think the atmosphere in one would be at all right for giving birth, and she wanted someone she could have already built a relationship with helping her through it, and so on. So they found Helen, a midwife in the area, and Darcy started seeing her.

* * *

"I just don't understand how you can _not_ call them, Loki," Darcy said tiredly. "They're your _parents_."

He shook his head. They'd been having this cyclical argument for almost an hour now. "They're not my parents."

Darcy sighed heavily. "Except that they _love_ you as if you were their own flesh and blood, and I think that should count for a hell of a lot. Do they even know that you got married? Let alone are going to be having a baby?" She'd called her parents the same night she'd told Loki. It was just _right_.

"It's possible Thor told them," Loki said stiffly.

"But probably not," Darcy guessed.

Loki shrugged. "As far as I know, Thor doesn't keep much in contact with them either."

And _that_ was what confused Darcy so badly. They didn't speak of their childhood as if it was some terrible thing. For the most part they seemed to have had a fine time growing up. Loki had nothing bad to say about his parents except that they had lied to him. And yet he refused to speak to them.

"If you won't do it for yourself then," Darcy said, leaning against the doorway that went into their bedroom, "do it for the baby." She saw Loki soften a little at that. "I want this baby to have as many loving, caring people around it as possible. And I don't want it to be _estranged_ from some of it's family. That's just not okay to me."

"I-" Loki hesitated. "Maybe."

Well, Darcy supposed that was as close as she was going to be getting tonight. She was too tired to push harder, not to mention the fact that she hated fighting with Loki in the first place.

"Just, please," she said, turning away from the doorway and getting into bed, saying over her shoulder, "Think about it."

Loki didn't come to bed for a long time, and she fell asleep troubled and sad.

* * *

The next day they were flying down to her parents. Things were still a little tense from their argument the previous night, and neither of them really felt like talking much during the flight. Darcy just couldn't wrap her head around why he would be so stubborn about something that seemed like it so obviously should be done, and Loki felt pushed into making a decision that he just didn't feel right making.

They sat next to each other on the plane unspeaking. Loki had the window seat, and he spent most of the flight staring down at the world as they flew. Darcy listened to her iPod. It wasn't a long flight, but the pregnancy made her more prone to exhaustion, and after about an hour, Loki felt a slight weight on his shoulder and looked over to see that Darcy was fast asleep, his shoulder being used as a pillow. She looked so small and contained in repose- not at all like the little firecracker he knew her to be. He kissed her forehead and she murmured something he couldn't make out. He was sorry that they were disagreeing.

She jolted awake when they touched down at the airport in Virginia around five in the evening, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. It was pretty cute how she was always paranoid about drooling, and yet never once had he seen her drool.

They didn't speak much as they went to pick up their baggage and get a cab. Darcy was preoccupied by how horrible the food in the caffeteria smelled as they went by, and then got lost in thoughts of the delicious meal her mother would have no doubt been prepairing for them all day. Loki was wondering how long things would remain tense between the two of them, and trying to figure out how he could fix it.

Darcy's longing to be home grew greater with every mile closer to her parent's house. Loki, on the other hand, was a little unsure about the whole thing. He'd been greatly impressed by Maria and Harold Lewis when he'd seen them last Christmas, but wasn't really sure what kind of impression he'd made. At the time he'd been pretty preoccupied with having just found Darcy again. And now they'd heard that he'd just married their daughter and that they were going to be grandparents, and he wondered how they felt about that.

* * *

They pulled up in front of the pretty, white colonial two story house and it's vibrant green lawn. A plastic pink flamingo stood out against the green of the lawn, and Loki couldn'thelp feeling a bit of a kinship with it. Neither of them really looked like they belonged there.

They got their baggage out of the trunk and paid the cab driver. Darcy must have picked up on his apprehention, because she squeezed his hand.

"Hey," she said, setting aside her frustration to reassure him. "They'll love you. I know _I_ do."

Loki smilied in gratitude and nodded once. He just wanted to make a good impression.

Darcy's dad opened the door, and Darcy promptly dropped her luggage to hug him.

"Daddy!" She said, wrapping her arms around him.

"KitKat," He said fondly, returning the hug.

"And this is my husband," she grinned at the word, still unaccustomed to it. "Loki. You remember him, dad."

"That I do," he said, shaking Loki's hand firmly and smiling welcomingly at him. "The man who convinced my wild daughter to settle down. She must be quite the handful," he said, winking.

Darcy rolled her eyes at this, smiling.

Loki smiled that half-smile that she loved so much. "Oh, nothing I can't handle."

Just then they heard a voice from the kitchen saying, "Come in! Come in! I'd come out to see you, but this sauce requires constant stirring."

Harold directed Loki to just put their luggage in the living room for now, and once that was done Darcy took his hand and let him to meet her mother, who he remembered as being quite the nifty woman.

"Well hellooooo there handsome," Maria said, looking Loki up and down. Turning to Darcy, she muttered, "I can see why you're carrying his child."

"Mom!" Darcy cried, laughing. She picked up an oven mitt and smacked her mom lightly with it. Loki grinned at this.

"Well, it's true," Maria said unapologetically. "Now come here and hug me, darling, I've got to keep stirring this.

"I love you," Darcy sang as she hugged her mother's shoulders. Maria turned her head so that she could kiss Darcy's cheek.

"And I love you. Come here Loki, I want a hug from my son-in-law."

Feeling a little awkward, Loki did so. Maria kissed his cheek too.

"Good," she said. "Now, do you want some water? And we've got nuts if you're hungry, because I don't want you to spoil your appetite, and the food will be done soon.

"I'll get some water," Darcy said, going to the fridge. "Loki, you want some?"

Nodding, Loki said, "Sure." He felt a little awkward just standing in the middle of the room, so he sat down at the round kitchen table, noticing the eclectic decorating of the room. There was a bird clock on the lime green wall that would chime each hour in with a different bird sound, and there were pictures of flamingos all over the wall that he didn't remember from being there last year. He wondered what had happened to inspire the invasion of the violently pink birds.

Darcy returned with two cups of water, sitting down next to him.

"Thank you," he said, looking at her and trying to convey that he meant it about more than just the water. She smiled reaching for his hand. He gave it and she rubbed a finger over his ring, tapping it and then letting his hand go.

Darcy's dad walked in and took the other chair next to Loki. For a brief moment there was only the sound of Maria stirring the sauce, the gentle clack of the wooden spoon she was using against the metal pot- and Loki wondered if this could be him and Darcy in twenty-five years time. Cooking dinner while meeting the person their child was in love with. It was both a terrifying thought, and an appealing one. But the moment was brief.

"Now when are you two moving to Virginia?" Maria asked.

Darcy spat out the water she'd been about to swallow. "Umm, _what_?" She asked. Loki was surprised as well.

Harold just shook his head, smiling fondly at his wife. "Oh, Maria," he said. "They're not _moving_ to Virginia, honey."

"Well why not?" Maria asked defensively. She turned to Darcy. "Don't you want us to see our grandbaby?"

"Moooom," Darcy said in the voice of one who has faced down this kind of attempted guilt-trip. "Of _course_ we do. But we're not going to just pack everything up and move down to Virginia. I've got a job up there. And Loki has his teaching position, and the lab...I mean, we're all set-up there."

"What, there aren't jobs down here? And we've got plenty of colleges," she said dismissively. "I don't see any problems."

Darcy rolled her eyes. "Mom. No."

She sniffed. "Fine. I just hope my granchild will recognize me on the rare occasions that we meet," she said.

Grabbing hold of the conversation, Harold turned to Loki. "So tell us, son. What do you do? You're a teacher, yes?"

Loki nodded. "Yes, sir. I'm a proffesor over at MIT."

"Ah, a man of science," Harold said approvingly. "I'm just the same."

Darcy laughed. "Daddy, what are you talking about? You're an English major." She turned to Loki. "He was a highschool English teacher for twenty years," she said.

"I may have taught English," Harold protested, "but I still believe in science. Gravity, my man," he said, slapping his knee. "Just so."

Loki grinned, liking this man more and more. Darcy's mother he still found a little intimidating.

Maria pronounced dinner ready a few minutes later, and the conversation turned toward the baby as they ate.

"I think it's wonderful that you're having a baby while you're still young enough," Maria remarked, causing Darcy to roll her eyes and Loki to smile. He had a feeling that most of Darcy's adolescence was spent rolling her eyes at her mother.

"Mom, I'm only twenty-four. It's not like I was really running out of time."

"Well, you never know. I'm just grateful that I'll have a grandbaby soon. Aren't you grateful, Howie?"

Howard nodded assent, used to being dragged into his wife's schemes. "Sure am," he said. "It'll be mighty nice to see a baby around here again."

"But they don't want us to see our grandbaby, Howie," Maria reminded him sourly. "So I wouldn't get your hopes up."

"Mom! Quit it," Darcy said warningly, getting annoyed.

Loki wasn't really sure how to handle this kind of situation, but decided to see if Maria was as easy to distract as Darcy was. "So how was this one?" he asked, nodding at his wife. "What should we be watching out for when the baby starts to walk?"

"Oh my lordy," Maria exclaimed, proving herself incredibly easy to distract. "Well you'll have to be careful where you put your keys- I'll tell you that much. Darcy was the most adventurous baby I've ever seen. One time- Howie, do you remember that time?" Howard nodded, clearly knowing what she was talking about. "Well I started keeping my keys up high, because she would always be running off with them and hiding them in our shoes or something. So then I hear a crash one day when I'm in the kitchen and I go running into the living room, and what do I see?"

"I was a brave little kid," Darcy claimed stoutly. "I was a hero."

"What you were was a little fool," Maria said, not unkindly. She turned back to Loki. "She'd somehow climbed up the shelf- about five feet up at least, and she'd just four years old at this point, mind you. And the shelf had fallen down, and there she is sitting on the ground, and I'm afraid that she's hurt so I'm making a big fuss, but what does she do? She smiles at me as if she hasn't just scared the bejeebies out of me and starts playing with the keys. A terror. She was an absolute terror.".

This led to many more stories of Darcy as a child, many of which made Loki laugh. She'd been a precocious little thing, inclined to getting into all sorts of trouble.

* * *

They stayed in Virginia for two more days before flying back. They hadn't really resolved their argument about Loki's parents, but both had dropped it and so they ignored it for the present.


	22. Chapter 22

"Look at all this stuff!" Darcy cried in amazement. She and Jane were at a store that sold baby things. "This is like a whole world that's supposed to be populated by tiny children. Oh my god. Let's hope they never rise up against us, because let's face it: we don't stand a chance against the cuteness they could wield."

"It's a lot of stuff," Jane agreed, as they walked the aisles. "Wow." She picked up a tiny toy roman helmet. "Is this really necessary? I don't feel like this is necessary."

Darcy smirked. "Necessary? Of course it's necessary, Jane. Babies need to be protected when they go out to fight other like-minded gladiator babies."

"Apparently it must be quite the 'in' thing these days, because they sure are stocked up on helmets," Jane observed. It was true. There were about twenty of them, absurdly enough, sitting right next to a whole bunch of terrifying dolls.

"Well, it's probably because of that movie that just came out. You know the one- where the baby had to save his parents by wrestling the neighborhood kid," Darcy said, examining the glass eyes of one of the dolls.

"Oh yeah?" Jane asked. "Which one was that? I must have missed it at the theaters."

"Really? I'm surprised you missed it. It was out for a long time, because it was such a hit. 'The Baby Who Had it All, And Then Lost it in a Card Game'."

Jane snickered. "And where did the gladiator bit come in?"

"Well," Darcy pointed out, "I don't really want to ruin the whole thing for you. That bit was one it's many clever plot twists."

They laughed, still wandering the aisles a bit aimlessly before finding the ones filled with plush stuffed animals, and rattles, and baby clothes and such. It was a big store.

"Oh," Darcy said, sighing happily. "This is more like it."

Jane smiled at Darcy's sudden maternal side.

"Well, the baby's definitely going to need this," Darcy said, picking up a stuffed penguin. "Just look at that. So adorable an angel would beg for it's autograph. But my baby won't have to beg. No sir. And oh my goodness! Well, baby is definitely going to need a crinkly quilted book. She could use it for snuggling _and_ learning..."

By the time they left, Darcy and Jane were loaded with baby things.

* * *

Loki and Darcy had decided that what was now Loki's office would become the nursery. So he'd been moving things around- most of the stuff ending up at the lab. As he moved things around, he came across the box of poetry and drawings he'd done of Darcy back when they'd been separated. He was glad she'd been gone when he came across it. She didn't need to see those- they were truly horrible, and he didn't like to think of when they'd been apart. Yet, he didn't really want to throw them away. So, ultimately, they ended up making the move with the rest of the stuff to the lab. He figured it was a little risky leaving them in the house with Darcy being so emotional lately- he didn't want them to set her off. Even though he knew that it was just a biological thing with her hormones going crazy, it still gutted him to see her cry.

Darcy came back from shopping with Jane a couple hours later. By then Loki had already dropped off most of the things that had been meant to go to the lab, and the room was pretty bare.

"What do you think?" he asked.

Darcy looked around it with interest. "Yeah," she said, smiling with pleasure. "I can totally see this as a nursery."

It was a smallish, rectangular room with two windows on one wall that got quite a bit of sun, and it was connected to their own room, which would be a plus when the baby was born and they'd need to keep an eye on it. The walls were currently a slightly strange green color that darkened the room a bit, but Loki was planning on painting it the next day. They'd decided on a bright, sunshiney yellow color, because they didn't know the sex of the baby yet and they agreed that yellow was cheerful anyways. It was early still, to be preparing everything- there still being about four months left- but they were both so excited to see how their baby's room would look that they'd decided to get everything ready as soon as possible.

Darcy drew a hand around Loki's waist, and his fell around her own. "I can totally picture the crib right there, in front of those windows," she pointed, "and then along that wall, the changing table. And a small bookcase in that corner, for baby books. We're going to be reading a lot to our baby."

Loki smiled at that. He'd always found baby books to be the most ridiculous things. Anyone could write one, it seemed, because they were just simple sentences basically. It amused him that now he would be buying them for his own child. His own child. It still all felt a bit imagined, that he would be a father soon, despite Darcy's growing belly. He had a feeling that raising his children was both the greatest and most terrifying thing he would ever do.

"Our baby's going to have the best room any baby has ever had," Loki said.

"Hmm," Darcy sighed happily. "It's gonna be pretty chill." She looked up at him, apologeticly. "I'm sorry that you had to move your office, though. I know it was really nice for you to be able to just have that at home."

Loki shook his head. "It's okay." And it was. He was moving into another phase of life, and things were changing. He understood that. "I'm glad that this is happening," he said, placing a hand on Darcy's belly. He couldn't believe that their child was actually _growing_ in there. "I'm glad this baby is happening."

Darcy was about to say something when the baby kicked, and both of them jumped. "Oh my god!" Darcy cried in wonder, her eyes huge. "Did you feel that?"

Loki's own eyes were huge as well. He nodded slowly. They each put a hand back on her belly. The baby kicked once more. They grinned at each other, both awash in a glow of love for this unborn baby.

* * *

"Oh my word," Darcy said, taking a deep breath. "That smells delicious." She'd been craving mushrooms lately like crazy, and because Loki was the better cook he'd gamely offered to learn 'The prestigious art of mushrooming', as he called it. Which he was incredibly talented at, of course.

It was the beginning of December, and she was quite obviously showing. She must have gained about twenty pounds. She was aware that it was good to be gaining the weight, because she was eating for two these days, but it was still depressing the heavier and more unwieldy she got.

She'd been paying attention to doing as her midwife and all the books said, and eating frequent small meals with plenty of fruit and vegetables. It almost felt like she was getting ready to hibernate, all her eating in the cold weather.

Loki extravagantly placed a dish heaping with buttered, sauteed mushroom before her. "For you, mademoiselle."

"Thank you, Loki," she said sweetly, biting her lip and then grinning.

"Don't you use your wiles on me," he said, mock-admonishingly.

Darcy laughed, digging in. Loki watched with amusement. He knew for a fact that before her pregnancy she had hated mushrooms. Absolutely _loathed _them.

"Loki," she'd tried to explain to him. "They are disgusting things that shouldn't be eaten. They grow in the _ground_ for god's sake. They touch _dirt_." She'd made a face when he'd pointed out the inconsistancy of her adoring all things potatoes.

Now, he just grinned at the sight of her wolfing them down. She was such a funny little thing. Such a perfect little thing. He felt his face softening the way it did when he stared at her for too long.

"Lokiii," Darcy wailed, starting to cry out of nowhere. "How can you look at me like that? Look at me- I'm so huge, and here I am stuffing myself with mushrooms. I mean I'm basically a fat hobbit compared to you. _How_ can you look at me like that!"

Whoa. Restraining the laugh that would like to bubble up in his throat, Loki kept his face smooth and comforting. "Honey," he said, kissing her. She pulled away.

"Loki, stop! I know you're not attracted to me anymore. No one could be! I don't believe you."

"Darcy," he said firmly. "You have said many ridiculous things before, but that is the single most ridiculous thing you have ever, or ever could, say."

"No it's not!" she cried, not really knowing why she had to argue, but unable to stop herself. "I could say plenty of ridiculous things. Things about...turtles! And how, I don't know, maybe they should wear tophats and sing Frank Sinatra songs, because _god knows_ that's all their good at. Have _you_ ever seen a turtle do anything worthwhile-?"

"Darcy. Darling. Relax."He rubbed her shoulders slowly. "Deep breaths, yeah? In, out. In, out."

She smacked his hands off. "Stop it!" she said. "I don't want to go into labor yet."

"Honey, you've still got another three months to go."

"Exactly!" she cried in outrage. "Do you have any idea how bad it could be for the baby if I went into labor now? It's probably still looking like a dinosaur!" Her eyes got sad and she pouted. "Dinosaurs...the poor things. They really didn't deserve to die."

Loki internally sighed in relief. He loved Darcy, truly, and he was glad theat they were having a baby. But regular Darcy was enough to handle- a Darcy with hormones out of control was much harder to keep up with.

"No," he said agreeably, kissing her forehead and taking her empty plate. "They didn't deserve that."

Darcy sighed happily. "You always say the best things, Loki," she said, apparently forgetting about being angry at him only moments before.

Loki did the dishes, finding the rhythm of the chore soothing and helping him unwind a bit. It was nice to get a little time of his own. Their life these days seemed focused on the baby- dealing with the emotional minefield that was a pregnant Darcy, babyproofing the house, getting the nursery ready, reading up on baby facts, babies babies babies...and the baby wasn't even born yet! It did cause Loki some misgivings about when he would find time to be at the lab anymore, once the baby was born. Between teaching and grading papers, and then finding time to be with Darcy and still doing all the things around the house that needed to be done, there wasn't really a lot of time left over. And in the beginning, it had been his job teaching that had supplemented his true passion for research. While he'd grown to enjoy teaching more than he'd thought he would, that he hadn't been able to get to the lab lately had really hammered home the fact that it was really science that he wanted to be doing. And then with the baby coming soon, and Darcy taking a leave of absence from work to be with it at least for the first six months, he was sure to be getting less sleep than usual and be more worn out and have still _less_ time to get to the lab.

He made a decision, as he was soaping the dishes, that by the time their baby was one year old, he would be retired from teaching and would be able to have a full time job at a research fascility- rather than the work he was doing on the side for MIT. Preferrably, he would be working at SHIELD on the Einstein-Rosen Bridge project. The concept of it had gripped him ever since he'd heard of it as a young man, and the more he learned about it and the more he studied it, the more...he had to laugh even just thinking it because the idea was so absurd, but the more _familiar_ it felt. It was even more bizzarre, because he felt like there was a specific, proper name for the portals that he'd heard at some point, but couldn't quite remember...

He placed the last dish on the rack and dryed his hands, frowning at them in consternation. They were always quick to get wrinkly in the hot water. Darcy teased him about it, calling him Mr. Prune Hands.

He found her already asleep in bed, having retired when he'd started the dishes an hour ago. She was resting so peacefully, though she'd grumbled to him a few nights ago that since her belly had started getting quite big, she'd had to learn to sleep on her back rather than her side as she'd found more comfortable. He got in bed next to her, marveling at the heat her body generated. She was like an oven. He laughed quietly at the apt comparison.

He read for a little bit- she'd bookmarked some pages in her baby books and he flipped through them, skimming things here and there, noticing that a lot of them were really just saying the same things over and over again. By the time this baby was born, he was sure they'd be pretty knowledgable about what to do. Feeling sleep rise to claim him, and welcoming the dream state and it's hopefully baby-freeness, he drifted off.

* * *

Christmas was spent with Thor and Jane, Darcy's parents once again going on a cruise. They seemed to be making an odd habit of this.

Loki was pleased by how long his brother had been able to keep his relationship with Jane. It had been a learning experience for Thor, Jane being his first real girlfriend, and there had been some rough patches. But on the whole they seemed to be pretty solid.

Darcy had been adamant about having a Christmas tree, so Loki and Thor had picked one up and Loki and Darcy had had fun decorating it with strings of popcorn and cranberries and hanging candycanes on it. It stood in a corner of the living room, the string of colored lights between it's branches and the scent of pine really set the mood. It hadn't snowed yet, to everyone's disappointment except Jane's, who disliked the cold. But Christmas songs had been playing since Thanksgiving, and the spirit of Christmas was everywhere.

It was a light-hearted day, and everyone's spirits were high. They played Scrabble and Monopoly, and then watched the Muppet's A Christmas Carol. Food and conversation were sprinkled heavily all through the day's activities. And then, almost like a Christmas Miracle, it started snowing that night by eleven- big, fat snowflakes that blanketed the whole of the city by morning.

* * *

New Year's day was similar, the four spending it together again. It had a bit of a deja-vu feeling, because of the Christmas tree still standing in the living room in all it's glory, and it had started snowing again that day.

They'd all ended up going out in the small front yard of Loki and Darcy's apartment to make snow-men. Well, snow-people. Darcy's was a pregnant snow-woman, and Jane's was a snow-dog. Thor made the traditional snowman, with the addition of a Norse style helmet- they all applauded his ability to mold the snow into a believable helmet-shape. And Loki...they jibed him good naturedly about his. He'd decided to make, what he called, a 'monster snow-man'. It was the same size as Thor's, but he'd said to imagine it taller, and it had balls of snow molded onto it's face that he'd said to imagine as scarier.

"Why are you making a _monster_, though?" Darcy had asked, laughing as Loki did an impression of what he thought it should sound like.

"What's a story without a villain?" He'd asked, gesturing around at their family of snow-people. "Someone's got to be the black sheep."

Darcy had rolled her eyes as Jane had then declared her dog to be a sheep, and Thor had attacked Loki's monster by throwing snowballs at it that missed completely and instead hit Loki. It turned into a short but brutal game between the two, ending only when Darcy declared herself cold. Laughing the two men shook their hair, trying to dislodge bits of snow still slinging to them and slapping each other on the back. They went upstairs and made cocoa.

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ Thank you to all who read, and all who review! You guys make writing even more fun. =)_

_Also, just a heads up- there are about three chapters left._

_I'm going to be updating my Thor/Jane fic that's set in the same world soon, and I'll be finishing that before starting this story's sequel._


	23. Chapter 23

It had all been going fine. Darcy had been keeping it together for an hour and a half. Deep breaths. Feeling the contractions. Riding with it. She'de had it all under control, doing everything her midwife, Helen, had said to do until she could get there. Helen had been out in Pennsylvania for a family event, because Darcy still wasn't supposed to be due for three weeks. Darcy had always just assumed that she'd be giving birth at the end of nine months, so it had come as a complete shock when she'd suddenly felt her water break as she'd been bending down to get her socks.

Loki had been at school, because it was noon. Her heart pounding, she'd called his cell- but he must have turned it off because he'd been teaching. She left a voicemail, trying to be as calm as possible. Even though her contractions were still pretty far apart it was pretty terrifying facing it alone.

Helen had said she'd try to get there as soon as possible, but it was a four hour drive in the best of conditions. Unsure what else to do, Darcy had tried laying in bed and reading. It had been too hard to concentrate though- in a few hours the baby that she had carried in her belly for months would be in her hands and she could see it. She wanted that so badly.

Her contractions had started getting much closer after an hour, close enough that she got scared that she would end up giving birth, alone, at their apartment- which completely freaked her out. She'd read about what to do, but reading was a far cry from actually _doing_ it. She wanted someone to talk her through it, and someone she could trust who knew what they were doing. That was the whole point of having a midwife! She'd already tried calling Loki about five times at this point, and each time it fell to voicemail. Helen was still quite far away. She'd even called Jane, though she didn't know what Jane could do to help her. It didn't really matter though, because Jane wasn't answering either. Not sure what else to do, she called Thor, not really expecting anything at this point. But he picked up on the first ring.

"Darcy?" He asked. "Is everything okay?" Which made Darcy started laughing hysterically and crying at the same time. Why did _Thor_ have to be the one who was there for her? She _liked _him, but he wasn't her friend, and he wasn't _Loki_. "Darcy?" He asked again, concerned. "Are you home? I'm coming over."

"Y-yeah," she tried to speak through the sobs, wincing. Sobbing and contractions were not a wonderful mix. "Th-Thor, the baby's c-coming and no one's h-here, and I'm gonna g-give birth alone and s-something's gonna h-happen-"

"Darcy, calm yourself," he said, not unkindly. She could hear a car door close through the phone. "Women have been doing this for thousands of years, and sometimes in situations _far_ worse than your own. You can give birth alone, but you won't have to. I'm going to get Loki, and I will be there in half an hour. Do you think you have that long? How long is there between contractions?"

His calm, authoratative tone went far to helping Darcy get control of herself. He was right. Women had been doing this for a long time. The idea helped her relax a bit. She told him how long her contractions were, wondering why he would know anything about giving birth or contractions and such.

Feeling much, much calmer, she hung up. True to his word, Thor arrived half an hour later with an extremely shaken Loki behind him. Darcy sagged with relief to see his face, until another contraction hit and she gasped.

"Darcy? Honey. How are you doing?" Loki asked, taking her hand. "Can I help? Just tell me what to do," he said somewhat desperately.

"I don't know," Darcy said. She had no idea what Loki should do. "Just hold my hand. I just want to see your face." She concentrated on it, breathing in short, quick breaths now. "Fuuuuuck!" She hissed, squeezing Loki's hand until her own was white as a stronger contraction hit.

"I thought you had a midwife," Thor said. "Where is she? Why are you here alone?"

"She's- jeeeeesuss- on her way. Maybe like an hour and a haaaalf- son of a biiiitch."

Loki frowned. He'd always been wary of this idea of home-birth that Darcy had wanted, but he'd relented because she'd been adamant, and after all it was _her_ who was going to be giving birth. But for her to give birth _alone_? None of _them_ knew what they were doing.

"Darcy- what were you thinking?" He asked in consternation. "Why didn't you go to the hospital when you knew she was too far away? Honey, I'm taking you there _right now_."

"Don't yell at me!" Darcy said angrily between breaths. "I'm giving birth to _your_ baby. Helen would have been here if it had been on time. But no- _your _baby had to come three weeks early, and aaaaah-" she broke off at a sharp wave of pain. Something felt wrong. She was sure of it. Something was wrong. "Get me to the hospital!" She cried, staring wildly at Loki. "Quick! Something's not right."

Loki picked her up awkwardly, Darcy hissing at how strange it felt. Not painful, but definitely not the way her body wanted to be at the moment. Thor had already gone down to the car and Loki brought her down. At this point, it would probably be quicker by taking their car than by calling an ambulance, and time was imperative.

When they got to the hospital a very stressful ten minutes later, Loki ran in to tell them the situation, and two orderlies rushed out with a wheelchair and helped Darcy onto it. She was pretty quiet by now, focusing on just breathing, in and out, and in and out.

Loki was able to come in the room with her, but Thor was told to wait outside. The doctor examined how far along she was, seeing the problem right away. The baby was trying to come out at an angle, rather than either head or feet first. They had to turn the baby.

They'd given Darcy something for the pain, and she was slightly delirious, but was gripping Loki's hand so hard that he thought it might bruise. He was fine with it. He wished he could take the pain entirely from her, and was glad at least to be able to suffer somewhat at least alongside her.

"I am _never_ doing this again," Darcy said fiercely at one point, and Loki quickly agreed. No, he did not want her to have to go through this again.

An hour later their son came blinking and crying his way into the world. Darcy was exhausted and nearly passing into unconsciousness, but she got to hold her son for about twenty minutes before falling into a deep sleep. She knew she would always remember the first time she saw him, red-faced and perfect, his tiny fingers clutching for something to hold onto in this strange new world he found himself in, and her first thought had been- _so that's why people do this._

* * *

Loki watched Darcy sleep, glad to see her finally able to rest. Giving birth certainly seemed like one hell of a workout, both physically and emotionally. It had tore at him to see her go through it, and he couldn't even imagine what it must have been like.

He held his son now, and Thor had been allowed into the room finally. His son was so small. It was hard to believe that he could have all the parts necessary to be alive, and yet there he was, sleeping in Loki's arms after crying himself out. It felt both strange and amazing to hold him.

"Do you guys have a name picked out?" Thor asked.

They'd been tossing a couple around, still unsure of what the sex was, because they had wanted to be surprised. But Loki was pretty sure he'd found the right one. "I'm thinking Nathan," he said. It meant 'gift'. He thought Darcy would appreciate that.

* * *

She had loved the name, and so their son became Nathan Thorrin Laufeyson. They had to stay at the hospital for a week, and Darcy chafed at the restrictions placed on her there. This was one of the reasons she'd wanted a home-birth. She didn't want a stranger telling her how long she could hold her son for. It was liberating when they finally were able to come home.

Her parents had come up to see the baby when she'd gotten out, and at their first look had proclaimed him precious. Maria had been a valuable asset in that first week of adjusting to taking care of the baby out of the hospital, and Darcy had been quite grateful for it.

It was so different, now that the baby was born. Everything she did felt new as if she was doing it for the first time- because in a way she was. She did nearly everything with the baby. She hated putting Nathan down, and so she'd gotten one of the hammock things that you tie around your shoulders and the baby can just sleep at your chest and leave your hands free. It made her shoulders ache, so she had to be careful using it, but it was worth it to be able to just look down and see her son, and to feel him against her, knowing he was safe and doing fine.

Learning how to put diapers on had been a challenge. She'd wondered why it hadn't occured to her to practice on a doll first or something becfore the baby was born, but it hadn't. Her mother had showed her, with much gloating when Loki, strangely enough, had been a natural at it. It was one of Darcy's favorite things these days, to see him with the baby. He adored Nathan.

Things had been a bit tense for the first few months, because Nathan would cry all the times you wanted him to be quiet, or be quiet when it was okay for him to cry. They didn't get much sleep. Loki suffered more than Darcy though, because Darcy took naps during the day when Nathan did, and Loki couldn't. It made tempers short, though Loki was trying very hard not to let it show. He didn't want her to have to do anything around the house now that she had Nathan to take care of.

"Because I know it's a lot of work," he'd said. Darcy thought that was ridiculous, though it was a sweet thing for him to think.

"Honey, I'm home all day. You haven't been getting enough sleep, and then you're at work for hours. I don't want to let you come home to a messy house that you feel like you need to clean up."

He'd eventually crumbled, but he hadn't been happy about it. He was such a good man. Darcy knew he just wanted to do everything to make life easier for her, but honestly she didn't mind the chores.

Nathan started getting used to sleeping at night when he was four months old, and things calmed down a lot after that. The shadows under Loki's eyes faded, and his energy came back, making Darcy heave a sigh of relief.

Jane was often over on days that she had off and when it got to be the fall they would go for a walk in the cool afternoons, cooing over how cute Nate looked with the little hats they got for him. Darcy marveled that it had been a little more than a year now, since she'd found out that she was pregnant. How much life had changed- and yet how much it had stayed the same. She was happy. Really, truly happy. And she felt fulfilled, something she hadn't even known that she'd been missing out on for most of her life. She had her baby, she had her man, she had a good friend...life was pretty fucking great.

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ So this story is wrapping up really soon, if you can tell =P_

_There's basically one more chapter I think, and then I'll be starting the sequel in a couple days._

_Everyone who reads and reviews- I am passionately and platonicly in love with the idea of you. Consider yourself appreciated! =D_


	24. Chapter 24

_Three years later_

"Daddy! Daddy!" Nathan said excitedly, running to Loki as he came back from the lab. He was a cute little kid, with his big brown eyes and his mop of mahogany curls, and he was always brimming with energy. Loki didn't know how Darcy kept up with him.

He put his briefcase down by the door and scooped him up, blowing raspberries on his stomach. Nathan giggled hysterically, shrieking for more.

"That's my Natey-boy," he said, smacking a kiss on his cheek and putting him back down. Nate clambored for more, jumping up and down.

"Want airplane, daddy! Airplane!" 'Airplane' was when Loki would hold him and zoom him around in the air, pretending he was flying a plane. It had long been a favorite.

"Not tonight, Nate," he said, ruffling the boy's hair. "Daddy's too tired. Another time." Nate frowned, pouting a bit- much like his mother was wont to do- but forgot about it in a moment in his excitement to show Loki the pictures he'd drawn that day.

Loki followed him into the kitchen where he'd run off to, stretching his back muscles. They were cramped and his skin felt a little tight. He hadn't been sleeping well for the last few weeks- strange nightmares plagued him all night, only to disappear as soon as his eyes opened. Darcy had commented that he felt colder than usual, too- which was strange because he felt too hot. It was true that it was the end of August, and so there was still a fair amount of hot days, but it seemed more than that. Like it was caused by something internal, rather than just the weather. He waved these thoughts away. Having made an appointment to see the doctor in a few days, he really didn't want to dwell on it too much.

He smiled at the sight of Darcy at the stove. It had become the norm to see her cooking dinner when he got back. She'd said that it helped her relax when Nathan was taking his nap, which he must have just woken up from, and her cooking had dramatically improved because of the frequent practice. He teased her sometimes about becoming entirely domesticated, and she'd smack him lightly and tell him that she was still quite wild, thank you very much, and if Nathan was in bed at the time, she'd show Loki just what she meant.

"Hey, honey," he said. "I'm home."

Darcy turned from the pot on the stove, grinning.

"Well if it isn't the man who got me with child, come back at last to see how I'm faring," she said batting her lashes at him. She looked so cute, her hair up in a messy bun, and she was wearing an apron that read 'Kiss Me, I'm Me' over a purple t-shirt and jean shorts. He'd gotten her that apron for her birthday last year, and everytime he saw her wear it (which was often) he felt a little glow of pride.

"Well, my fair maiden," he said wrapping an arm around her and kissing her. "You seem to be faring quite sexily."

She bit his lip and-

"Daddy, daddy look- ewww..." Nathan said, having rushed into another room while they'd greeted eachother, only to see them kissing when he got back. They broke apart, grinning. "Come see my pictures, daddy," Nathan said impatiently.

"Mommy doesn't get to see them?" Loki asked, sitting down at the table.

"Mommy already saw them. Mommy's _always_ here." Nathan sighed at this, as if it was a burden. In truth he loved his mother, but he saw his father less often and so got excited when he was home.

"Hey, watch it, kid," Darcy said, ruffling Nathan's hair as he passed to sit at the table too. "You wash your hands?" she asked. "Dinner is in five." They'd set up a stool by the kitchen sink (which was annoyingly low in the first place) so that he could reach.

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Not _yet_." He said in the voice of one who is long-suffering. "I was _gonna_ after I showed daddy."

"Wash them now," Darcy said firmly, knowing how forgetful he was. He definitely got that from her. "And show daddy after. But remember, dinner is soon so don't get too caught up in it. I don't want a repeat of earlier." He'd thrown a fit at lunch because he hadn't been ready to stop watching Elmo and come with her to the supermarket.

Loki grinned at the exchange. Darcy had such a good way with Nathan. He was so blessed to have them both in his life.

He'd been working at SHIELD now for a little over two years, having retired, at least for now, from teaching. It was an incredible thing, to be able to do what he loved all day and then come home to an amazing wife and young son. Sometimes he felt like pinching himself, because how could this be real? How could he be allowed to live this amazing life? But then he and Darcy would have a disagreement, or Nathan would throw a fit. He would have nightmares, his back would ache- the little annoyances of life would creep in and he'd almost be relieved, because then of course it must be true: this really was his life. He truly _was_ this blessed.

Nathan sighed and made a big show out of washing his hands. He definitely had Darcy's talent for the dramatic.

The pictures he had drawn turned out to be of all of them as a family. There was Darcy, wearing an apron and smiling, and Loki, who was frowning.

"And who are these?" Loki asked. Nathan had drawn two boys, one smiling and one frowning.

"Those are me," Nathan said. "See? This one is for when I'm happy because I get to have mommy, and this one is for when I'm sad that daddy's gone."

"Wow," Loki said, impressed and touched. Nathan was a cute little guy, but he was smart, too. That was one of the most surprising things about having a kid, Loki thought. That they could be so innocently wise at times, in between their fits and naps. "That was a pretty cool idea there, Nate."

Nathan beamed at this praise, and Loki's heart just melted. It was so clear that Nathan had a case of hero-worship where he was concerned.

"Alright mateys," Darcy announced, adopting a pirate accent. "Supper's up. Come get yer stew."

"Or what?" Nathan asked, grinning with delight. He loved when his mommy pretended to be a pirate, or a superhero. She played the best games with him.

"Or ye walk the plank, m'dearie," Darcy said swooping Nathan up and kissing both his cheeks. He wriggled out of her arms laughing happily.

Darcy looked at Loki, shaking her head with mock-sadness. "They never choose to walk the plank," she said, pouting.

"Who would walk the plank," Loki asked, kissing her, "when they could stay on a _pirate_-ship with you as their captain? They'd be crazy to want to leave."

Darcy smiled, accepting this. "This is true," she said. "They would have to be literally insane. Have you had my pesto lately? It's frickin' out of this world."

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ There's a short epilogue that I'm working on, but this is the last chapter. Still planning the plot out for it's sequel, butI've got a lot of it, and the first chapter should be up within a week. =)_


	25. Chapter 25 Epilogue

_That weekend_

The doorbell rang. _Fuck_. Darcy clutched her belly, feeling a little queasy. "Loki?" She called from their bedroom as she waited for the queasiness to pass and changed her shirt. Nathan had thrown a fit and splashed his orange juice on her at breakfast, and she'd just finished dealing with that. He was currently in a time-out in his room. "Can you get the door? That must be them."

It was a Saturday morning, and Thor, Jane, and their twins, were coming over to visit for the day. Their families got together every few weekends or so to catch up and let the boys play with each other. Well, 'play'. The twins were just learning to crawl right now, but Nathan loved them. He made faces for them, and told them stories that Darcy was sure they couldn't understand yet, but loved.

And it was great to see Thor and Jane. Everyone had gotten quite busy, what with Loki at the lab and Thor and his carpentry business, Jane and Darcy with their kids... And not to mention Darcy's stabs at writing. She'd started during Nathan's naps as something to do, and found that she really enjoyed it. She'd written a few short stories, but had really been drawn to children's literature, what with being submerged in it with Nathan. It was actually after reading The Velveteen Rabbit to Nathan to put him to sleep that she'd first picked up a pencil to really write.

In his room, Nathan sulked. It wasn't fair. His cousins were coming over soon and he didn't want to be in a time-out. He threw a toy car at the wall angrily.

"Got it!" Loki called back to her. "And Nathan, no throwing things." He sighed, shaking his head. It was almost funny how mundane and domestic his life was these days. He opened the door.

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ Aaaand it's over. Thank you everyone who reads and reviews! You are wonderful! I loved writing this.  
_  
_If you're fine with the way it ended and don't want anything to change, then I suggest you don't read the SEQUEL that I've just put up the first part of, because things happen. I've got a lot of ideas for the sequel though, so if you feel like it, come follow Darcy and Loki in a new adventure... =)_

_ s/8384436/1/From_Father_to_God_of_Mischief_


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